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Review
1
“Well, hel-LO!” Ah, now this is more like it. “Hope
you like us! We’re a bit hit and miss…” Ain’t
that the truth. Still, rare to see a band prepared to come out with
an opening gambit like that, but then again this is Sophia, an excellent
combo who, annoyingly, have just made an album that doesn’t do
them justice, although they more than make up for that here. Initially
there’s something awfully seductive about their narcoleptic reveries,
all held together by the wonderfully named and, conventiently, also
wonderful Robin Proper-Sheppard, a man with the presence of Greg Dulli
and the voice of the result of an alarming tryst between Paul Heaton
and Hope Sandoval, possibly with Nick Cave looking on askancely. And
then it happens. The walls of sphincter-slicing, granitey screeee
come out of nowhere, and it’s so brilliant we could do with coming
up with some brand new profanities just to describe it. Knucklefuckingly
magic, then. Why, people are even genuinely scared!
Iain Moffat and Jeremy Allen (Playlouder.com)
Review 2
Sophia meanwhile seem to be on a mission to destroy everyone in the
main room’s hearing and possibly bring the ceiling down as well.
This is an odd move considering the quiet and downbeat nature of their
heartfelt alt-country. Things seem to be going swimmingly morbid on
the gorgeous opener "Slow Slow", then they play "Desert
Song #2", it isn’t even that loud on record but it seems
Robin Proper-Sheppard is carrying out some kind of white-noise experiments
for the US Government and the PA goes into some kind of weapons-grade
overdrive. Our balls start to shake and people start to leave the
room. Ooops.
nick farrow, www.thestereoeffect.com
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