Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
A deep and electronic heart, in the darkness the lights flicker, the wires that criss-cross and connect, flash, start to pulse and come alive, an eye opens, it looks towards where the sound is coming from and then with a distant memory of what may have tantalised the human brain before, the smile of recognition, a dream that once turned to faded brown, suddenly bursts into a living, breathing, cascading abundance of colour and sharp definition and the electronic heart whispers Build A Tower, build a monument because The Slow Readers Club have come to reclaim what went before.
The comparisons for the four piece Manchester band may be of the more of the more modern variety, but it certainly owes a huge and terrific debt to the bands and artists that paved the way in the first place; to the Human League, Heaven 17, Gary Numan, Blancmange, Yazoo, Depeche Mode, to this regal bounty The Slow Readers Club sit alongside with honour, the depth of the music captured certainly sitting comfortably alongside the great masters of the fledgling electronic genre.
Dark and brooding, the Rock machine wakes and the tower is built, the battlement secured, the crenulations defended and the keep, that enclave in which the sound pounds and is commanded from the top of the tower is entranced by the rhythm, by the productive feel supplied by the gate keepers Aaron Starkie, Kurtis Starkie, James Ryan and David Whitworth, is beaten out, not as a warning to the hoards at the mouth of the castle, but as a welcome to the tower, a appreciative greeting to the early fan and latecomer alike.
In songs such as the opening track of Lunatic, Never Said I Was The Only One, Through The Shadows, Not Afraid of the Dark, and Supernatural, The Slow Readers Club open the gates and let the forces of imagination run riot, the sense of impending desire is irresistible and the sound so intoxicating that it barely is able to draw breath as it cuts down the swathes of resistance and naysayers that clamber at the bottom of the tower.
It might be a surprise to the senses, but that watchful eye is keeping you in balance and check, it is only suggesting you Build A Tower, there is no order, no direct command, only a request, only an arrangement that signals out far and wide that this is an album more than worth its weight in admiration.
Ian D. Hall