The new album from LA Priest owes a huge debt to most of the bands you and I probably listened to in the Eighties. Even so, the material he cranks out is fairly distinctive when it needs to be, and full of bright synth-pop hooks. GENE, out now on Domino, is the latest release, and LA Priest (Sam Eastage) performed nearly everything on this album.
"Beginnings" is catchy and poppy, while "What Moves" is more moody, a faint whiff of Japan or solo Mick Karn about this one. Elsewhere, "Open My Eyes" plows the same ground that Wild Beasts have plowed, but with a directness that gives this a real solid appeal. Sam Eastgate was in other bands before (Late of the Pier) but LA Priest feels like it's all him, with the tracks owing everything to his vision of what synth-pop can still do in this century.
Further to that point, there's not a huge amount of variety here on GENE but that's sort of forgivable given how successful lots of this is. It bears repeating just how much lots of this sounds like Wild Beasts. If Eastgate doesn't have the swoop and range of Hayden Thorpe, he's at least got the good sense to aim for a more direct approach on at least half of this record. If the second half of GENE is ambitious and only partly successful, it suggests that maybe Eastgate didn't have as much material ready as he should have. I mean, I admire the chances taken here on this part of the record, but, in honesty, the second half sort of derails the gains achieved on the first few fine numbers on GENE.
GENE is out now via Domino.
More details on LA Priest via the official Facebook page.
[Photo: Isaac Eastgate]