Skindive - Skindive

Palm Pictures - 2001 - 51 minutes

Any debut album accompanied by a press release with the words 'revolutionary', 'mesmerising' and 'classic' has more than a little to live up to. Signed to former Island supremo Chris Blackwell's new label, Dublin outfit Skindive fail to deliver on all three counts but still suggest that there's better to come.

Close your eyes and it's 1995 all over again, with their glossed up industrial sound combining the loathing of Nine Inch Nails and the vampish cool of Garbage. The main problem is that the production is far too dense, with the layers of guitars either smothering songs or sucking the emotion from them.

When Skindive take their feet off the effects pedals they sound all the better for it, the likes of 'Salt Peter' and 'Zero Now' coming across as Bond themes for lonely nights in. Some fine moments, but all too few.

Harry Guerin

Tracklisting: Swallow - In For The Kill - Confession - Space Age Lullaby - Tranquillizer - Salt Peter - Skindive - Zero Now - No More Good Guys - Contrition - Sweetness - Love Me Still