FAIRYTALES OF SLAVERY

Miranda Sex Garden present a confident and polished version of their trademark folky goth with progressive elements on Fairytales of Slavery. Combining curious medieval-influenced wind recorders with esoteric keyboard lines, along with mysterious and evocative vocals, the album adeptly evokes the atmosphere of claustrophobic entrapment in strange magical realms that the lyrics suggest. At times I am almost reminded of something on the border of post-rock, with the unusual instrumentation favoured by the band producing something which doesn't quite sound like any other gothic rock band - think, perhaps, a more avant-garde incarnation of All About Eve or Dead Can Dance, after listening to a lot of late-period Talk Talk and early Steeleye Span.