Phantom Limbs, The – Displacement

Despite the fact that I was really charmed about the first album (Applied Ignorance) by this band, I was even more impressed by their side project Black Ice. By that name some members of The Phantom Limbs play a darker and more old-skool gothic orientated variation on post-punk music.

Displacement is the second album by The Phantom Limbs and opens with the typical Adams Family like organ that is already a distinctive aspect of their sound. After that the record continues with chaotic and hectic post-punk that could also be found on the first album. Very quickly though it becomes clear that on this album the songs have a more clear structure, are less anarchistic. You could say that The Phantom Limbs have become a little bit pop orientated, but this is absolute the wrong word for this music. But, due to this, songs like ‘Castanets Cookie’, ‘From a Distance’ and ‘Ear to the Ground’ are in a strange way pretty
catchy.

The Phantom Limbs have successfully found a way to make this second record more accessible without losing their touch with the punk tradition. The result is that the psychotic post-punk on Displacement can easily compete with the music of Black Ice.

artist: Phantom Limbs, The
label: Alternative Tentacles
details: cd/lp [virus 305]