(Wall to Wall Records)
Instant Camera is a Louisville band with plenty of potential. Like fellow locals VHS or Beta, they sound like they might have emerged in New York or in a large, stylish European city. The band's sound has much in common with New York fashion rockers Interpol and The Strokes, as well as British dance rockers Franz Ferdinand and Bloc Party.
Instant Camera is a rock band without any obvious debt to blues music, but there are echoes of 1980s music. Bouncy American New Wavers like Devo and Oingo Boingo pop up at times, as well as gloomy English buzzkillers such as Peter Murphy or Killing Joke.
What gives Instant Camera an edge on similar groups is its ability to draw inspiration from yet another source: hints of the theatrical German cabaret style emerge in the last songs, "Terrorvision" and "Hearing Is Disbelieving."
As the fashion and dance-rock scenes fall into the dustbin of our recent history, let's hope this band continues to evolve and surprise.
