CAUSTIC CASANOVA is a power trio operating out of North America's capital city of rock, Washington D.C, but they don't belong to the kind of new bands that resurrect the sound from musicial pioneers as Cream or Blue Cheer. Instead, 'Imminent Eminence' confronts the listener with a wild mix of 80's indie rock, punk and pop. The results are patchy at best. Out of the fourteen tracks of this album, only half of them have left a big impression on me. Sure, I know that CAUSTIC CASANOVA don't take everything so seriously, but why do they have to sound like a school band? Well ok, not always but very often. You can barely hear the guitar, whereas the bass sound is heavy like a chest full of plumb. The clear vocals are in the foreground, but unfortunately the singer is tending to get on my nerves after a relatively short time, while the drums are nearly as quiet as the guitar. 'Mythical July' could be an unreleased song from The Smiths and 'I Hate Everyone I Want To Like' is definitely a funny song title. Personally, I think that the second half of the album is the best part. Suddenly there are a couple of hooks and the band plays slightly tighter. I am well aware that all this is CAUSTIC CASANOVA's intention (otherwise it would be a disgrace) and the wilful looseness is also part of the program. However, 'Imminent Eminence' offers me too little and the overall playing time of 72 minutes is just too long.

(KK)

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