Womb Of Dreams

80s revivalists go back to the future.

It’s ironic that the first wave of electro-pop innovators in the 1980s considered themselves to be musical futurists as the era has now become a treasure trove for today’s retro-popsters

Canadian female duo Dandilion Wind Opaine and Marta Jacubiek-McKeever, a.k.a. Fan Death, are the latest musical ghouls with a debut offering they claim is inspired by classic original synth-poppers Human League, Pet Shop Boys and OMD.

It’s no disgrace, with tracks like Veronica’s Veil and Phantom Sensation emerging from explosions of tinkling keyboards and theatrically overwrought vocals, but like La Roux, Fan Death fail to measure up to the standards of their heroes.

Ultimately, they recall not 80s colossi such as Human League, Heaven 17 and New Order but the lesser lights who followed in their wake: Fiction Factory, Visage, Flock of Seagulls, Classix Nouveaux. They need to stop looking to the past and start to invent their own future.

Album Review by Ian Gittins