Mahogany

Mahogany were always one of those bands that looked good on paper. With all the right elements for atmospheric pop (lovely boy/girl vocals and layers of swirling guitars) and some very generous My Bloody Valentine comparisons (which weren’t completely deserved...), it isn’t a surprise they’ve stuck around since the late ’90s, slowly building up a devoted following. In that time, they’ve released lots of EPs and singles and a well-received debut album. They don’t quite fit in with the shoegazing revival bands that have been accumulating during the last few years, although there are moments that could quite happily hold their own against classic Chapterhouse or Slowdive. Instead, they bring together Krautrock and post-rock influences, blending them with those afore-mentioned bands to make something different enough to make it both interesting and relatively different. Connectivity! is an ambitious album as the band try to broaden their sound, with moments that hint at Stereolab, the Cranes and the Cocteau Twins. These similarities might not be as coincidental either because former Cocteau Twin Robin Guthrie shows up to lend a hand with production. He also brings along his daughter Lucy, who makes her recording debut singing on one song, sounding a bit like her mother Elizabeth Fraser —although it does seem a bit like a calculated move and a novelty more than anything else. After their first album, most people felt that Mahogany were one album away from greatness, but Connectivity! doesn’t quite find them there yet. Maybe if they dropped the high concept and focussed on the music, they might make it there in time for album number three.