Genre: Rock/New Wave Year: 2004 Country: USA Official Site: Moving Units Details: Tracks & Audio Label: Palm Pictures
By looking at the cover of the CD, you might expect some kind of Duran Duran offspring. Rather, Moving Units finds its roots in early New Order and Blur period "Boys & Girls" with, here and there, a few hints of other influential bands such as Talking Heads and Bauhaus.
Their sound is sleek and shiny with a big round bass and light guitars, offering a nice retro feel which is surprisingly British-like for a band established in LA. While they are mostly reminiscent of Blur, the result puts them in the Franz Ferdinand/Killers bandwagon, which is not a good thing as these over-hyped bands don't seem to convince beyond a couple of singles, catering mostly to those who think electro was born in 2002.
Dangerous Dreams is pretty uniform and it is difficult to discern one song from another. While this approach worked pretty well on Interpol's first album, Turn On the Bright Lights, mostly because of the band's distinctive intensity and its refusal to pen easy pop anthems, thus forcing you to dig deep into its universe to be able to appreciate it; here it sounds like a lack of originality resulting in a palette of superficial tunes.
Not that there aren't any good songs: whenever they dare to leave Blur's shadow to venture in old New Order territory, they are capable of effectively sharp tunes such as "Between Us & Them", "Going for Adds", "Anyone", "Scars" & "Turn Away". These songs work the best because, just like in the case of Interpol, they fill some kind of nostalgic musical gap between the mid-eighties and 2004. However, in the case of the Blur-like songs, Moving Units—just like Franz Ferdinand—fail as Damon Albarn's group is still alive & kicking and its 90's songs not forgotten, which inevitably brings comparisons between the original and the copy. In the same style, I must admit to prefer Elefant and Bloc Party.
Moving Units Dangerous Dreams
