For his third Don’t Be Afraid outing, Benjamin Semtek gets inspiration from Tennyson’s poem about a bunch of sailors who discover the island of opiated lotus flowers and abandon their lives to remain their munching on their leaves in a state of bollocksed nirvana. There was a supremely-atmospheric track about all this on Nick Cave’s last album, now Benjamin taking it the old school house route with chugging classic riffage, before Neville Watson weighs in with stealth-creeping New York deepness [complete with pads] and malevolent throb action from Justin Harris, weirding out the original’s vocals. Also here, Isa G.T.’s remix of ‘Key’ is a chunky, malevolent growler with gorgeous strings and disembodied female vocal. Bonus track ‘Westchester Baby’ [unfortunately not on vinyl] hoists a Mr Fingers bassline and sublime strings, joined by ‘French Kiss’-style riff action. Extremely addictive in itself, all told.
5 Out Of 5
Reviewed By: Kris Needs