AMG Review of Summer's Last Sound

Ned Raggett
All Music Guide

The band's last release on the Che label, or more accurately the sublabel Cheree, was the first in five astonishing singles, all containing non-album material, which cemented Disco Inferno's reputation for haunting beauty combined with extreme experimentation. Harnessing the power of sampling and avant-garde production techniques, the band's songs grew ever more ambitious, even as Ian Crause became the best lyricist of the outsider since Morrissey. The title track slowly builds over a weirdly ascending melody line, with the guitar completely transformed into a high, floating edge of sound, while "Love Stepping Out" has only Wilmot's bassline to link it to traditional rock, otherwise indulging in an electronic soundscape, half calmly beautiful, half strangely threatening. Crause delivers his images of decay and, in the latter track, feelings of hatred and loathing for happy couples out parading around with a distanced, lost air, increasing their impact even more.