Murnau takes us into a new journey on their 3rd record “Cellophane Radio” with their mixed influences and unmistakable sound. The rocking duo Alex Riggen (vocals/guitar/mellotron) and Nick Pompou (percussions) have worked their magic using the musical chemistry between them, resulting in the 7 tracks solid record that we’ll be digging deep into right now, so let’s see how it goes.
“Cellophane Radio” opens with the doomy intro of “Baltic Sea” that shifts into a 90s-influenced gothic dark verse that perfectly builds up to a heavy, catchy chorus. It has a subtle groove covered with a heavy layer created by those fuzzy thick guitars. “Awake” comes next, building on its predecessor’s energy and heaviness with an even groovier flow, a layer of smokey atmospheric guitars, fat bass, and super cool multi-layered vocals. Murnau decided to give PJ Harvey’s “Dear Darkness” an industrial twist as they cover it on the 3rd spot on the record, they took it into a darker and heavier area with loads of gloomy, well-mixed melodies that added lots of weight and sincerity to its heart-hitting lyrics. “Repent” is where Murnau songwriting skills really shine, it’s really interesting how they carefully controlled its swinging dynamic shifts from highly emotional verses with subtle beautiful orchestrations and catchy energetic choruses all in a perfect flow, heavy progression, and significantly awesome drumming. The doomy sound is back with “Dalia”, it hits with loads of dark, deeply emotional melodies within its slow heavy progression that leads into a massive breathtaking sound. Murnau gave The Smashing Pumpkins’ “Solara” a “Murnau touch” as they tuned it down and totally flipped it into something their very own with those raw fuzzy guitars, heavy groove, and expressively atmospheric vocals. The guys decided to flex their abilities on their closing song “Primroses”, ending the record on a high note with its multi-layered, dare-to-say proggy sound, psychedelic vibes, and extremely dynamic structure with perfect mixing and instrumentation arrangement, making me play the record all over from the top. Definitely my favourite off this record.
“Cellophane Radio” is a super enjoyable sonic experience by Murnau with unique sound and approach, they are totally focused on their sound and direction and this shows clearly on how they dealt with the songs they covered. I’m glad I had the chance to review it and will definitely be digging deeper into Murnau‘s catalogue. Looking forward to more from Murnau, cheers!
