Nights Of Forgottent Films

The combination of Chris Eckman's lovely rasp of a voice and the Bambi Molesters' surf-garage jones had first surfaced when the band backed Eckman on a track of his Black Field album in 2003, but it's their full collaboration as the Strange that gave them a chance to demonstrate what they could do in full. Nights of Forgotten Films, consisting of nine originals and two covers — the first of those being an absolutely inspired version of Echo & the Bunnymen's "Villiers Terrace," transforming the unsettled psychosis of the original into a wired thrash with a killer intro — is a joy to listen to. Starting with the title track, both the performances and the production — overseen by Eckman and regular collaborator Phill Brown — stand to the fore, the surf-Morricone twang of the band refracted just a touch through Eckman's moody Americana-into-Europe visions. Hearing the Molesters work as a backing band rather than fully standing to the fore makes for enjoyable listening — since everything has to be a bit subordinate to Eckman's singing, the quartet fills out the sound around him, more restrained than usual but all the more sharply effective for it. Check out the ominous growl of the guitars on "Tonight, I Will Say Anything" (particularly an amazing tremolo solo) or the brooding bass rumble heralding album centerpiece "Comin' Undone." At many times, the combination sounds like what an alternate soundtrack to Sin City might have been, laden with threat and drama, but songs like "River of Twilight" and "These Lies" cast a gentler, more wistful air, at least musically. Eckman contributes acoustic guitar and piano but otherwise is content to let Molesters guitarists Dalibor Pavicic and Dinko Tomljanovic work the fretboards with their expected grace and power. In a nice touch, bassist Lada Zaborac adds vocals to "Gone Missing" with Eckman, creating a hint of Lee & Nancy tension on top of an already tense track.