Alcoholic Faith Mission - Orbitor

Band names are important, and there are certain ones that just cause a reviewer's heart to sink when they drop into his or her inbox. And Alcoholic Faith Mission is one of those names. It just seems like it would belong to a bunch of English ex-public schoolboys desperately trying to buy some Americana county-folk 'authenticity' by namechecking grizzled alcoholism and religion. The kind of musical trend, in short, that's been depressingly prevalent ever since the Mumfords' banjo-bludgeoned the world into believing that pretending to be WOODY GUTHRIE and wielding a fiddle was somehow culturally relevant in the 21st Century. Despite their name, Alcoholic Faith Mission are, luckily, nothing like that. They're a Danish electronic band now based in Brooklyn who have just put out their sixth album Orbitor. Stylistically, it's an elegant blend of sounds, with hints of all the most successful electronic artists of the past decade from ANIMAL COLLECTIVE to PASSION PIT. Alcoholic Faith Mission have a knack for crafting songs which start off low-key and then explode into utterly massive choruses. It's an adventure in slick, mature electronic pop by a band who've been around for a while and have clearly found their sound and know what they're doing. Could still do with a better name though.