Russian Spy Camera
You Are A Vulture
Happy Happy Birthday to Me Records

When I first sat down to listen to the new Russian Spy Camera album, I thought I was in for a 2006 rendition of The Clash. I was pleasantly surprised when I realized it was just the Joe Strummer-esque vocals on the opening track of You Are A Vulture that created the sense that Russian Spy Camera had composed an ode to that iconic early punk band. These Strummer-style vocals are woven throughout the album, but there are so many other things going on that this aspect of Spy Camera’s music is a nice effect rather than a distraction.

The rhythmic background lyrics on “To Slip Through The Cracks” will catch your attention at the beginning of the album, and the trance-like keyboard/drum duet “Ascension” will calm you down once you reach You Are A Vulture’s half-way point. Russian Spy Camera’s sophomore release closes gently with “A Séance In The Dark,” a call to the dead.

A pleasantly moody and not overly dark concoction of echoing vocals, strummed guitar, drums, and a twist of electric keyboard patches, Russian Spy Camera’s two-man show is original, inventive, and intriguing.

MP3
Svengali, What’s the Caper?

Website
Russian Spy Camera website