http://www.themummers.co.uk
http://www.myspace.com/themummers

The Mummers present a strong case for the influence of Tim Burton on pop music. It's not so much that they sound like the soundtracks composed for Burton's films by Danny Elfman - though one hears traces - more that they sound as if they have tried to bring to music the same sensibility that Burton brings to film. Like Edward Scissorhands, Tale to Tell mixes and matches periods - Wonderland skips from a drunken waltz to flighty lounge pop. Like Sleepy Hollow, it is gothic without ever being goth. As with Burton, there's a feeling that assembling the signifiers of sensuality will be enough to bring that sensuality. It's opulent stuff, and from opener March of the Dawn onwards, this music, all strings and brass and careful detail, feels like being locked in a dark parlour draped with thick velvet, incense turning the air heady.
by Michael Hann
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