release date: Jun. 27, 1989
format: vinyl (FIEND 156) / digital
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,26]
producer: Steve Kilbey
label: Demon / First Warning - nationality: USA / Australia
Track highlights: 1. "Diviner" - 3. "Ethereal Message" - 4. "Mercury Towers" - 6. "Fire Island" - 7. "In the Net" - 8. "Silvermine"
Studio debut album by music duo-project Hex, founded by Australian vocalist, bassist, and composer Steve Kilbey (of The Church) with American guitarist Donette Thayer (of the band Game Theory) at a time when they were also a couple. The album was initially only released in the US on the smaller BMG-owned label, First Warning Records and in 1990 also in the UK by Demon Records. In parallel, Kilbey also formed the music project Curious (Yellow) with (other) girlfriend Karin Jansson and together they released the 12'' single, "I Am Curios" (Mar. '88).
In addition to dream pop, the music is also referred to as ethereal wave - a subcategory of dream pop, where the focus is on the more slowly progressive with the use of delay effect. Musically, it is further away from Kilbey's normal compositions, where the jangle-pop element is completely absent and instead replaced by keyboards and then all tracks are recorded with Thayer's vocals.
The album garnered good reviews, but it doesn't really catch on and to me it sounds more like inspired by earlier 80s bands like Cocteau Twins, This Mortail Coil and other 4AD / Creation artists, mainly from the British Isles. Thayer's vocals may sound quite narrow and without the big register, but at the same time it has a charm and warm tone that fits well with the genre and style. All in all, it's nice and fine, but it's not exactly ground-breaking music that you need to know of.
