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This Portland quartet's debut album is a collection of psychedelic songs that places the band among the current groundswell of bands influenced by the Creation Records/shoegaze sound. They may be using a lot of talking points from similar-minded Northwest bands like The Dandy Warhols, The High Violets, Voyager One and The Upsidedown, but they use them to good effect so it's hard to be mad at them. So what if the vocal harmonies on "Roll Down" and "Much More" sound like they were picked up from the studio floor after the sessions for 13 Tales From Urban Bohemia (and the presence of Dandy's producer Tony Lash only serves to further the comparisons)? Saturna spins them into their own well crafted sugary pop songs laced in multiple layers of guitar effects a la The Jesus and Mary Chain (another big influence). Despite the obvious nods there are still some unexpected twists and turns on Some Delicious Enemy, like the sudden foray into big-beat electronica at the end of "Fall", or the glammy swagger on "Just For Thrills" and "Pop Rocks". Although they haven't fully found their own voice yet, Saturna have given space-pop fans a fine way to spend 44 minutes.
DAVID MANSDORF
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