CD: “In Cold Blood” by Scarlet Soho

In Cold Blood is Scarlet Soho’s third studio album, a follow up to the “Warpaint” album in 2009. It is produced by James Yuill, Graham Laybourne (Boytronic/Falco), Zanzibar Production, and the band themselves. Scarlet Soho are the brainchild of vocalist James Knights and bass/synth-ist Scarlet. The band have appeared at a host of European festivals including Summer Darkness, Wave Gotik Treffen and Sazava Fest.

The band’s sound revolves around a mixture of synthetic instruments along with bass and guitars, with its influences coming right out of the creative electronic 1980’s. It is very easy to compare this music with the likes of Depeche Mode and Soft Cell; but there is also a darker, gothic vibe along the lines of the lesser known Electro/Goths like Rosetta Stone.

Kicking off with the title track “In Cold Blood”, which starts off with a smouldering piano intro before James Gahan-esque vocals kick in with the accompanying Synths. Synthesisers virtually dominate the album giving a very retro feel, with no real attempt to give a modern twist of any sort to the theme.

There are some fine standalone songs like “Gigolo”, “Make the Final” and “This Town Is Mine” with its fine mid-tune trumpet solo. It is well worth venturing to the final track which has a pretty mean Industrial style intro, and at about 7:25 a nice little bonus in the form of a hidden track “This Habit of Mine”. A beautifully sung slower number showing off James’s substantial vocals.

Scarlet Soho are clearly a talented duo, the album is full of well written tunes creatively produced, however it is certainly what I would call a marmite album; something that I feel would only appeal to a limited niche market.