When I interviewed Nick Thorburn of Islands (And formerly of The Unicorns) last year he said something about doing a collaboration with Honus Honus, lead singer of the fun, freaky, Philadelphia, experimental band Man Man. Of course, I presumed it would be a single track on Islands' next studio album but instead it turned out to be an entirely new side-project. Mister Heavenly was born.
Yesterday the band made another step toward concreteness by releasing its first full length. The genre has been called "Doom Wop" by Thorburn who described it in another interview as "[. . .] low frequency, and extremely slowed down music atop traditional doo wop harmonies. Or something". This description sounds more to me like Doo Wop chopped and screwed which isn't what the record sounds like but there's definitely a golden-age r&b influence with love lyrics and backup vocals aplenty.
The most noticeable vocals contributions are from Honus. Parts of the record sound very much like lost Man Man recordings while other parts sound like Islands b-sides. The title track is the best example of Thorburn and Kattner working together. Synths beep and Honus roars.
I don't know if this was just a one album stint but there seems to be enough chemistry between these two front men for another.
Grade: B+
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