Plasticine Sheen

So you say you've always wanted to hear a supergroup comprised of the singer from Flesh for LuLu (Don't know his name. Don't care.) and members of The Cult (pre-Electric)?

Well, you're in luck! No, they never actually formed the group (that I know of), but they didn't have to, because Balaam and The Angel took care of it for them.



Go ahead and pretend I wrote some fluff about the BATA's bio, because I just don't care that much to look it up, and you probably don't either. They never really did anything great, never went anywhere. I bought their debut(?) album back in the late 80s because I liked the cover. That's how I bought most of my music back then - I didn't have the benefit of a friend or older brother with great musical taste, so I did it the hard way: trial and error. Spent hours upon hours wander the aisles of Tower Records, trying to glean as much knowledge as I could, but usually ended up buying on "looks" alone. I actually got some pretty good records that way. This wasn't one of them.

To be fair, it's not bad. I even enjoyed it for a while, I suppose. The record is just...lackluster. Every track is just a few bpm too slow. The vocals are flat, despite loads of that late-80s plasticine* sheen (hey, that was a cool phrase. I'm gonna use that as the title!). Their hooks were "subtle" (nice way of saying weak). Their sound wasn't bad...just "done." Yeah, they were probably a few years too late. If they'd added some synths, they might've picked off some Echo & The Bunnymen fans. If they'd rocked it out a bit, they might've found some sympathetic ears from Cult fans. But as is, they found neither. They probably shoulda made it onto the soundtrack of some wanna-be John Hughes movie. Maybe they did. I doubt it. I don't care.

Apparently, they did some other records, blah blah blah...faded into obscurity...blah blah blah...

Listen:



All the songs sound pretty much just like that.

*Must remember this next time I'm ranting about our local
"Plasti-scene."