Have The Proper Ornaments Created A New Indie Genre?

By Henry Lipput

The Proper Ornaments’ Mission Bells album (Tapete Records) is the band’s follow-up to last year’s shoegazey and Velvet Underground-influenced 6 Lenins. There are more musical references on the new disc and there is also what may be a new indie genre in the making.

In between the release of these albums the band (James Hoare, Bobby Syme, Max Oscarnold, and new bassist Nathalie Bruno) toured Europe. New song ideas were born during soundchecks and soon after the tour ended they began recording at Hoare's home studio in Finsbury Park, London. 

As a result of the band’s touring and going right into the studio, they’ve become a tight group that effortlessly falls into a groove. On “Downtown” the groove is not so much funk as swamp like The Beatles’ “Come Together” as they cover a song originally sung by Petula Clark. Hoare sings “Just listen to music of the traffic in the city / Linger on the sidewalk where the neon signs are pretty” but it’s nearly unrecognizable which means they’ve made it very much their own.

There’s a brooding, nearly claustrophobic vibe to some of the songs. For example the lyrics of the opening track “Purple Heart” (“Your enemies are close / The walls are closing in”) match the overall tone of the song. “The Wolves At The Door” has a similar mood. But the delicate “Stings Around Your Head” and the closer “Tin Soldier,” with it’s Sterling Morrison-like guitar licks, are breaks in the musical clouds.

Two of the last songs on the album borrow lyrics from other songs on Mission Bells for their titles. “Music Of The Traffic” is an instrumental-only “Downtown” and “How Do You Get To Be So Cold” is a lighter, piano-based take on “Purple Heart” with a new set of lyrics.

My favorite moments on Mission Bells are the sounds and the instrumental passages within the songs. There’s the ending of “Downtown” where the band continues its groove, “Broken Insect” has a terrific, jangly rhythmic strumming guitar like on Lloyd Cole and the Commotion’s “Mr. Malcontent” as well as a droning bug sound like XTC’s “Fly On The Wall,“ and there’s the hypnotic drum and electronic beat of “Strings Around Your Head.” 

And the new genre? There‘s a bit of it at the end of “Echoes“ but it‘s on “Flophouse Calvary” where there’s what sounds like a pedal steel guitar in with The Proper Ornaments’ brand of gazey stuff. I may be wrong but this may very well herald the arrival of -- wait for it -- Nashville shoegaze.

Next time: Vince Melouney will make you feel alright.