Review of Doomed Forever Album by Procedure Club

Canada's Slumberland label appear to have a mission to resurrect the C-86 era for the few who weep for it, previously releasing Chin Chin's Sound of the Westway and here giving a platform to Procedure Club, an American duo who clearly have Pooh Sticks and Flatmates pin badges in their drawers.

Procedure Club Doomed Forever Album

It's not a time many recall with great fondness musically, but 'Clubbers Adam Malec and Andrea - that's just Andrea - seem ready to salute it throughout much of Doomed Forever's first half, as the uber-tweeness of opening salvo Feel Sorry For Me and Vermont confirm. Just in case anyone here is struggling with the idea, the formula is relatively simple, being one third amateurish surf pop, one third shonky post punk clatter and then all topped off with one third Ronettes or Shangri La's to taste. Sophistication therefore as you might expect is someone else's problem, with fuzz pedals and drum machines being set to overdrive in an attempt to produce a wall of sound effect on a budget. Not for the first time I find myself writing that Alan McGee has a lot to answer for.

Up until the bizarrely titled Slut Fossil, Doomed Forever is a history lesson worth skipping. However, within it's two minutes of atonal sub-garage which sounds like it was recorded in a toilet, the saccharine lo-fi excesses of what went before it can partially forgotten. Instead, Nautical Song finds the duo finally sounding like they mean business, as the blistering white noise intro subsides into a half decent approximation of Never Understand period Jesus & Mary Chain. Sadly there's no repeat, but Rather at least has them nailing their Tallulah Gosh impression once and for all, whilst closer Seventh Circle of Hell is chipper synth pop for anyone who ever learned to play a Casio using one finger. Flawed but unrepentant, Doomed Forever doesn't lack reverence, just enough decent tunes.


Andy Peterson


Site - http://www.myspace.com/procedureclub

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