Jason Moore has posted a review of the original 1992 Projekt Records release of Idylls to his Opus Zine. The following is just an excerpt. Read the full review on the zine’s website.

Let’s get the obvious out of way: the Cocteau Twins are Idylls’ most obvious point of reference, particularly Treasure and Victorialand. Ryan Lum’s guitars create the same sort of jawdroppingly gorgeous soundscapes as those produced by Robin Guthrie, Suzanne Perry’s gorgeous voice echoes Elizabeth Fraser’s gossamery glossolalia, and beneath it all, there’s the cold, artificial thump of a drum machine (which serves only to highlight the music’s ethereal aspects).

Perry’s voice proves surprisingly versatile, moving from Fraser’s angelic cooing to an almost Middle-Eastern tone (“Scatter January”, “Forgo”) that gives the music its own special feeling of exotica to a state of complete bliss-out in which she’s more than content to drift along to wherever Lum’s guitarwork might lead (“Love’s Labour’s Lost”, “Noumena Of Spirit”).

As for Lum, well, he may be certainly indebted to Guthrie, but he’s certainly no sycophant. The acoustic-based “Love Labour’s Lost” could almost pass for a Lothlórien folk standard and both “Eudaimonia” and “Waiting For The Sunrise” are explorations in guitar ambience, especially the latter, which eschews any sort of percussion or any similar “earthly” element for a golden sound that’s truly fitting given its title.

Meanwhile, “Dead Language” and “Stir Among The Stars” are darker, harsher tracks that fall firmly under the “darkwave” umbrella championed by Projekt. “Dead Language” in particular is a chilly, goth-y delight; Lum’s guitars grow increasingly brittle and frantic, eventually exploding into icy shards that ricochet off the drum machine and threaten to impale Perry’s fragile banshee.