It was with a great deal of trepidation that I typed The Bedroom Witch into the search engine but fortunately, by appending musician, I discovered that we’re talking about “a dark pop project of Los Angeles-based recording and performance artist Sepehr Mashiahof.” The latest (the 6th) album is called A Place of Hurt and having checked out the back catalogue, while I must admit it isn’t my normal listening cup of tea, if you like synth-laden, dark, dramatic and atmospheric pop, then this is as good as you’ll find.
Take the opener, ‘My Only’ for example, this would have soared up the charts in the 80s when Erasure, OMD and even M or Blancmange reigned. As with all the tracks, this is carefully crafted pop with Soft Cell comparisons valid too. The curiously titled ‘Cher, Everywhere In LA Takes 20 Minutes’ adds some clever wordplay to the template as well as some drum machine Bush hints.
‘Don’t Promise Me Anything’ takes it a stage further with melodic harmonies. The closing track, ‘Procession’ adds psalm-like harmonies to the mix and, as the synth creates nice guitar sounds which are more accessible to my ears.
If this review was in that pinnacle of publications ‘Smash Hits’, then they would be raving about this very strong entry to the genre. In a rock and metal magazine, it is more difficult and the star rating for metal heads would probably be a 2, but Smash Hits would give it at least a 5!
A Place of Hurt is out now via Psychic Eye Records
