The two-piece name checks Elfman, the former Boingo frontman, as well as Tim Burton, the director whose films he’s famous for scoring. It employs the pogo-ing, carnival-esque sounds of such Burton/Elfman outings as Pee Wee’s Big Adventure and Beetlejuice, which were echoes of Oingo Boingo’s manic haunted-house synth pop re-imagined with strings and horns.
There’s nothing orchestral on The Greatest Show Unearthed, but that’s part of its charm. Anachronistic synths dominate; electric guitar dances in and out. Vocals are spoken and screamed but still sound like musical theatre.
The liner notes thank Dario Argento, Edward Gorey, and Goblin along with the nods to Burton and Elfman. It’s a revival of the 1980s’ own skewed ’50s revivalism, a Monster Mash with a more prurient interest in the grotesque and macabre.
Like Burton or Elfman, singer/guitarist Curtis RX and keyboardist/sampler Erik X mix the pre-sexual with the post-sexual. Grade school Halloween imagery masks genuinely sinister subtext, then dresses it up in such jaunty synth-punk that only those really paying attention will catch Creature Feature’s twisted visions.
– Lyam White
Creature Feature: www.creaturefeaturemusic.com
Sumerian Records: www.sumerianrecords.com