Scorpio Rising

Death In Vegas’ sophomore effort, 1999’s The Contino Sessions, was one of the best albums released anywhere that year, an awesome pre-millennial soundscape of crunching dance beats, goth-tinged blues riffs and suitably threatening vocal contributions from punk figureheads like Iggy Pop and Bobby Gillespie.

This time round, DIV core members Richard Fearless and Tim Holmes have largely moved away from the sinister atmosphere which permeated both Contino and its predecessor, Dead Elvis, and found themselves a somewhat mellower groove. Tellingly, all but two of the guest vocalists this time around are female, and the collaborations with Liam Gallagher and Paul Weller (the former a mid-paced garage-rawk plodder, the latter an uninspired cover of a Gene Clark song) are by far the weakest tracks.

Those two slightly Dadrock-ish tunes apart, Scorpio Rising makes for absolutely thrilling listening. If the early DIV sound could be said to have had its spiritual home in one of the dingier dives in James Ellroy’s LA Quartet novels, reverberating to Dick Contino’s blues, the group have now headed eastward to explore the icy atmospherics of ’70s Krautrock and the mystical string motifs of the Indian subcontinent, as conducted here by George Harrison/Ravi Shankar collaborator Dr L Subranamian.

The Teutonic vibe is picked up on the Kraftwerk-like motorik groove of ‘Hands Around My Throat’, the first single and a standout track.

‘Diving Horses’ sees Fearless’ girlfriend Dot Allison deliver an angelic vocal over an unspeakably gorgeous mix of chiming guitar and Cocteau Twins-like ambience, whilst the closing ‘Help Yourself’ is a symphonic celebration with former Mazzy Star singer Hope Sandoval (who also features on the wondrous acoustic number ‘Killing Smile’) repeating the mantra “Help yourself love” over a stirring string arrangement.

Scorpio Rising confirms DIV as one of the most consistently innovative acts around.