Shipwrecks

Album Review

Shipwrecks is the first collaboration of the Weathermen's Jimmyjoe Snark III and Seabound and Edge of Dawn vocalist Frank Spinath. Recording as Ghost & Writer, Snark and Spinath demonstrate an obvious love of 1980s moody electronic groups Depeche Mode, Gary Numan, and Nitzer Ebb. It's no joke when Spinath sings "I used to be a new romantic, but nothing's new about my views," on the noir-ish Music for the Masses meets 1930s electro gramophone German cabaret "Nightshift." Though Shipwrecks looks to the past, the production is decidedly state of the art and fresh. Spinath's strong, serious, but emotional vocals and Snark's dark atmospheric electronics recall and compare favorably to the releases of scene favorite Sascha Mario Klein (aka Neuroticfish), though half of the tracks aren't exactly dancefloor-friendly in their pensiveness. The 16-song release sees eight catchy original tracks and eight remixes that exactly mimic the album's running order. Remixers add drum'n'bass flourishes and stylistic tweaks, and aim for the discotheque more often than the duo. Fans of moody electronic pop music will find much to love about this fine, accomplished debut.