Trend transplant remembered

Another instalment in The Pulse reviews series. This one concerns loungecore's arrival on the Nottingham scene:

The Mile High Club: In sounds for the way out
@The Hand and Heart, Nottingham, April 3, 1998

Loungecore is here! Where is everyone? This night demonstrated the difficulties of transplanting a London fad to a provincial city. Sure enough, the Mile High Club made all the right moves with its blend of 60s exotica, erotic soundtracks and mood music, whilst pattern-projectors, lava lamps and screens showing cult fiction conjured up the requisite retro-kitsch, 'we're on the set of Jason King' ambience. Unfortunately, the model the Mile High Club is following is starting to look somewhat shopworn, even when well packaged as here. Since the whole loungecore/easy listening/cult fiction nexus initially appealed because of its tastelessness, as an antithesis to clubland and rock music notions of 'cool', when those 'way out' sounds came in from the cold they lost their outlaw cachet and had to be judged in purely musical terms, where, with the exception of gems such as Jean-Jacques Perrey's EVA, they tend not to withstand much scrutiny. Nevertheless, as a background buzz pre- or post-clubbing, the Mile High Club could be worth checking out in the future so long as its organizer gives it a more original twist and relies less on the London blueprint. More kitsch porn soundtracks perhaps? Yes! More sex please, we're British!