Flying under the radar forever, for years this greater New York trio has made some of the loveliest ethereal music, but
Rocket Surgery says the group is peaking.
Lost Patrol have always had some of the epic grandeur of
the Chameleons ("Play with Fire" here overtly nods to "Singing Rule Britannia"), the sonic majesty of
Kitchens of Distinction, and the female-voiced, chamber mothership pathos of
Cocteau Twins,
Siouxsie and the Banshees, and
Pale Saints, but their reach is expanding like the depth of their spatial production. Witness the cinematic, orchestral strings diving like dolphins under Mollie Israel's yearning vocal on "This Road Is Long," or the C&W twang of
Duane Eddy, solo
Greg Sage, and "The Game"
Echo & the Bunnymen elsewhere.
Lost Patrol are busting out of any Anglophile-oriented, post-dream pop, guitar effect-dominated, 4AD-ish ghetto;
Rocket Surgery is sprawling, glistening music as full of bursting beauty as 11 red roses springing open -- and as dazzling as their World's Fair (Queens) at supernova-dusk sleeve. ~ Jack Rabid, The Big Takeover