EP Review: Bacchanalia Coppélia | Flowers for Juno

Today the Sanctum enters into a dark, synthwave shoegaze territory to discover Bacchanlia Coppélia, the latest offering by Flowers For Juno. Comparisons between My Bloody Valentine and Type O-Negative have been used to amalgamate the band's signature sound - a sort of tape-hiss, heavy reverb, and dream pop soundscape. The project sounds like a darker counterpart to Cocteau Twins - where they float high in the clouds with an angelic lightness, Flowers for Juno is buried down deep into the roots with grit and weight.

Breaking down the project, Message To Lana makes for a trance-inducing intro that entices the listener like a vampiric tractor beam into its sinister soundscape. The track is strong enough to set the tone, rightfully placed at the top of the list. It leaves you with questions more than answers and has you wondering what is coming next. The project leads us through this gothic lullaby of static and heavy, dense production, especially vocal-wise. Frontman Benjó "Baboon" James leads with a performance that bores into your mind like an audio hypnosis. The following Her Kiss Is Still Warm On My Cheek is an instrumental break leading into the frenetic Song for D.

This one is driven by a mantra-style, repetitive delivery that goes hand-in-hand with the angsty percussion and -once again- sharp chops. Song for D relies on its looping, addicting character to jam into the mind like a narcotic and offer a feverish trip - like watching a film in fast-forward. Finally, Canticles of Ecstasy is the aftermath of this violent explosiveness of the EP reaching its stasis, its afterglow after the climax. Mysterious, minimal and peaceful in a weird way - like a machine slowing down its engines before turning off.

All in all Bacchanlia Coppélia is not for everyone, especially not those who are looking for easily accessible music or something light and fluffy. As with all art, if you stare at it for way too long up close, everything looks like pencil strokes or painted colors in a strange disarray. Once you depart from it you can see it culminate with a freshness and a clarity that you didn't have initially. And I think that's what all media deserves, otherwise we risk throwing things away and never getting the chance to obtain what is being offered. Eventually you come out the other end, hopefully ground down into something more diamond shaped in the rough. That’s exactly the case with Flowers of Juno and their body of work.

Listen to Bacchanalia Coppélia here:

https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_kM5OIs2q_wZzhiSvfdVNTF1eGb0lBoK3k&si=XKzgjslvi3hWiolI