As Sherlock Homes might once have said, “Watson, How Garbo Died are a challenging case”. Superficially, they appear to have been accused of the crime of being ambient electronic and of being little more than iPod fodder and, on the surface, those accusations would indeed appear to have foundation but beneath that surface there is something more than a bit creepy.
All the genre markers are there with curious sound samples and crude electronic drums driving the songs along. Only these aren’t dance songs and they aren’t comfortable to listen to either. It’s difficult to pin down why as affected vocals and the occasional vicious use of guitar are hardly unusual but it is as it is. “The Comfort of Mediocrity”, as an example, does the dance macabre thing just as you would imagine Morrissey on a nose dive into the ocean of self loathing would. Similarly, “These Hospitals” turns out be more a statement on mental anguish than a reflection on the state of the NHS.
It’s all a bit surreal to tell the truth – I’d be hard pushed to even attempt to explain the best track “(Forever) Playing Houses” – and I would hazard a guess that most people wouldn’t make it by the first track but, for those that do, there is much of interest here.
Available as a free download from Bandcamp.