Tobin Prinz and Suzi Horn aka Prinzhorn Dance School return with their third album Home Economics, an album that boils down their sound to a sparse, at times primitive feel that, despite that, still manages to sound warm, and, overall, quite intriguing. The album is only six tracks and around 26 minutes long which, firstly, makes a full on review quite hard, but secondly, is, oddly, a good length for this album. It doesn’t overstay its welcome at all and, like all good things, leaves you wanting more.
One of the joys of this album is that it reminds me of many things I love, including New Order and Joy Division, both of whom loom large over the album. The band have reduced their sound to the basics of guitar, bass, drums and vocals but the production gives each element room to breathe and that makes tracks like the excellent Reign and Clean reminiscent of the sound that Martin Hannett would lend to Joy Division or the earlier works of New Order. You can hear the space in the music, if you’ll forgive such a pretentious if not scientifically impossible phrase, and thetas to the album’s benefit.
There are also touches of The Wedding Present, especially in the vocals of Prinz on the likes of Let Me Go which coud easily pass for Dave Gedge. As a long time Wedding Present fan, that’s a wonderful thing to hear. Seamonsters, in my opinion the Wedding Present’s best album and an album that should be far more praised than it is uses the simplicity of sparse sounds to devastating effect and Home Economics follows the same path.
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For an album released on the peerless DFA label, there are precious few DFA hallmarks on this record but that’s absolutely fine. Home Economics is very much its own record and it’s all the better for it.
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