February 22, 2010

Album Review: Picastro - 'Become Secret'

The soundtrack to the beginning of the end

7 / 10 We’ve got the apocalypse all wrong. There’ll be no devastation or nomadic hordes of men gnawing babies’ toes. Instead humanity will peter out with a whimper. In the final days, small pockets will remain, and their final laments of our history will sound something like Picastro. Haunting mantras ‘Split Head’ and ‘A Dune A Doom’ are all mournful chanting piano that rumbles on the edge of a tune, broad brushstrokes of cello and guitar plucked with the weariness of imminent doom, sung by the deathly Liz Hysen, her vocals an unholy wedding of hippy nihilism and goth. End-time celebrating religious nutbars won’t be finding much eternal hope here, but for everyone else, a perfect soundtrack to the approaching void.

Luke Turner

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here to buy your copy of Picastro's 'Become Secret' from the Rough Trade shop.