The Stripmall Architecture sound is a very familiar one. Their music isn’t much different from any other electro-indie act. However, this band has a very peculiar likeness to Lali Puna, and if one were to ever fancy either of these bands, it is very difficult not to be won over by the other.
Stripmall Architecture’s Rebecca Coseboom has a sleepy and slightly petite vocal style akin to Lali Puna’s Valerie Trebeljahr. The music, too, with great similarity to Lali Puna, is indie-folk, with elements of electronic and rock cleverly interlaced.
The band’s second release, Feathersongs For Factory Girls Part-1, isn’t much in terms of length, only 23 minutes long with five tracks. But this “EP” proves itself in terms of its musical astuteness. Notwithstanding the beautiful artwork and elegantly minimalistic packaging, this record offers a very gratifying little musical snack.
Even though limited to the indie-electro framework, Feathersongs Part-1, in its own tiny way, is surprisingly not without tangles, and is in no way a terribly simple album. “Radium Girls” opens the albums with pomp, panache, and pop, being the only track that instantly grabs attention with its energetic rhythm and brisk guitars. The subsequent “Is This Science?” is more representative of the rest of the album, at least the pace of the ensuing songs: slow, psychedelic, and layered, these songs have a certain moodiness that is as brilliant as the opening track, but in a different way that is not as spontaneously delightful.
Releasing an album in two parts – Part One (Now) and Part Two (Later) – with track-listings from the yet unreleased half of Feathersongs proudly (and deceivingly) displayed on the back cover imbues Stripmall Architecture with an element of mystery and likewise, pretentiousness, which actually befits the band’s decidedly intellectual music. If this contrivance is to buy more time to produce something as strange and wonderful as the first half, and if the result is anything similar, then the band can be truly forgiven.
