Everything Forgotten Gathers at the Ceiling

The Blood Group's reticent twee carries out Le Grand Magistery's plan to magnetize displaced Sarah Records fans, a task less discouraging than you'd think after hearing the band's affinity for replicating old film noir resurrected by Dan "The Automator" and the Go-Betweens. Few moments of trebly ennui are too full of themselves, as in the shamelessly Francophilic "Tout le Temps," and the honeyed synths do everything in their power to make most of these songs blush and radiate. Jessica B, an ex-actress, sings like a torn cardigan while abandoned guitars are tugged and drums are tickled from behind. Occasionally, the same heroin-dilated ghosts that haunted England's Clearlake or Black Box Recorder can be heard, which almost makes you forget about the aesthetic politics that started it all.