LEVINHURST PERFECT LIFE ALBUM FULL CONTACT RELEASE: MARCH 23, 2004 REVIEW: MARCH 26, 2004

What can you expect from a founder member of The Cure? Anything, is probably the answer – but you aren’t expecting this!
First things first – Levinhurst is actually made up from the two main artists involved here; Lol Tolhurst (a drummer and keyboard player in The Cure) and Cindy Levinson. Dayton Borders – although not incorporated into the moniker, is certainly prevalent on the musical front – with the three of them creating a sound unlike most of what you will recall from those Cure days.
The tracks are linked by very ethereal wafts of sound, but the meat of most of the tracks themselves are beat heavy, and probably more dance friendly than you would expect. Large thumping drums seem to drive through the tracks, with fantastically sweeping intense keyboard sounds holding it all together like cobwebs holding drops of dew. The sound is very disorientating at times, with lovely sitar interludes being cut off dramatically by clanging and pistons as the root formation of the track “Lost”.
Another interesting point to note is how lovely Cindy Levinson’s voice is over these tracks – and very reminiscent at times of a young Debbie Harry. It can be said that here and there, it is her voice that really pulls these tracks together; the tension between her sweetly intoned vocals and the dark, menacing surfaces created by Tolhurst and Borders. The tracks as a whole seem to indicate a more powerful side to Tolhurst’s sound, none more so than “Hope”; a fierce animal of a song, that is at turns powerful robotic monster and throbbing beast, topped off by a strong vocal performance by Levinson. Also look to “Behind Me” for the electronic squiggle equivalent of a Jackson Pollock!
For all this invention though, it would have been nice for the final track “More/ Mad” to maybe be a little shorter. It would have been nice to maybe have seen some of the other tracks extended further, but not particularly this slightly repetitive pseudo-nursery rhyme. A slight tarnish, but it hardly takes away the sheen from this darkly menacing set.
There is everything here to suggest this band could carry on further and further from this outing, with tinges of dark electronics, some trip hoppy stylings, and more than a touch of pure techno rage. Something more to look forward to I feel; the sound of Levinson’s beautiful voice to Tolhurst’s dark electronic-beast, but unlike the fairytale hopefully the happy-ever-after ending is not just yet.

MIKE WHYTE