Review: Kino Motel – Headless
American Pancake
The dark sultry, savage, horror pop noir of “Headless” by Melbourne / Berlin based KINO MOTEL is a lot of things, an alt rock stroll into the unknown done with great panache. Extremely filmic it feels like the script was written in blood after a knife fight between David Lynch (circa Mulholland Drive) and Dario Argento (circa Suspiria). Sonically I feel an amalgam of artists like Bauhaus, The Drones, She Wants Revenge, Alien Sex Fiend. “Headless” wraps around you more tightly the more you listen and imagine the stories between the lines. It is the 2nd single from Kino Motel’s debut album “Visions” dropping on April 26th via Beast Records (EU) & Heart of the Rat Records (AU/NZ). I am soaking into “Headless” in a big way and loving Ed Fraser’s sort of Gothic post punk drawl offset by Rosa Mercedes’ 60’s torchy ‘teenage rebellion’ noir sound. It is all so subversively delicious.
LINER NOTES (bracketed):
[Beach Goth duo Kino Motel created their 10-track debut album Visions (out April 26) between the band’s 2 homes: Melbourne and Berlin. Ed Fraser (Heads. / Cash Savage & The Last Drinks) and Rosa Mercedes (Josephine Foster Band) have created a unique and visionary album filled with space, mood, feeling and complexity.]
[Heavily inspired by the spaces in which they travel, with Visions we see music videos shot by the band in Albania, Northern Ireland, and Australia. Ed and Rosa convey feelings and ideas of shifting landscapes and open-ended roads – “like a movie in your head” as described by Radioeins Berlin’s Marion Brasch.]
-Robb Donker Curtius
https://www.americanpancake.com/2024/03/kino-motel-and-alt-rock-horror-pop.html