Looks like this year witnessed some great releases in the electronic circus, but often the best ones are left to last, and ‘Pseudopop’ may as well be that cherry on the cake of 2018.
Coming from an act that have been climbing the levels of dark synth scene for the last few years, with BLACK NAIL CABARET honing their unique soundscapes, the new album seems to twist things a bit again in the Hungarians’ camp. Having started with a surprisingly punchy version of Rihanna’s ‘Umbrella’, BNC have since established themselves as the destroyer of everything dainty and soft.
Sat on the dark side of electronica’s moon, Emese Illes-Arvai and her husband pushed their last long player, ‘Dichromat’ over the finish line and continuing to feed the dark poison to the fans of the grittier, dirtier side of synth.
‘Dichromat’
Punchiness aside, the album starts off with minimalistic and quite melodious ‘Icarus’, which represents synth poetry at its best. The ‘Icarus’ flies over the tediousness of life with hope, which materialises in the simplistic use of synth and gentle piano.
The different approach continues on ‘Rhythm X’, showing off a more artistic side to the usual schwarzness of BLACK NAIL CABARET, stepping on the toes of GAZELLE TWIN, at times introducing Eastern influences and the more polished EBM than what BNC’s listeners might be used to. The whole thing is far more pop friendly than the band’s legacy so far. Is this the ‘Pseudopop’
‘La Petite Mort’ steps wearily over the gyrating beats, as if introducing colours into the signature black and white monotony. What brings one down to reality is the machine-operated ‘Trigger-Happy’ with the mundanity of factory work, the choices are clear “homicide” or “suicide”. Continue at your own risk.
‘90s’ and its Elvis in Hawaii-inspired bossa nova sits nowhere near the standard BNC supplies, which comes in as a pleasant surprise, if not a total shock and is either going to turn off the fans of stompy beats, or make the listener measure the pair with a new found respect.
The normality resumes with ‘Verge On The Creepy’. Back to the heavy beats, industrial samples of marching qualities, Emese goes for waxing lyrical alien-pop style. Greatly invigorated, the tempo slows down somewhat onto ‘Technicolour’, representing a gentler approach where Emese paints the picture with water based colours of the more demure type. The vintage synth connotations make themselves visible on ‘Unrequited Love’. A Bjork-esque approach to more concise electronica and a haunting vocal performance hover over the graduating steps into the quintessential sound of BLACK NAIL CABARET on the closing ‘Resonance’.
Having left the best to last, the twosome present the bomb right at the end. Could this just be a very modern approach to love? To pop? To musicality? Having achieved so much over the last few years, with their growing fan base, gnawing sense of urgency to provide an alternative electronica source and alien-like synthpop, BLACK NAIL CABARET go twisting the boundaries and breaking the rules on ‘Pseudopop’.
Yes it’s pop, it’s their own pop; something BNC never did before… or are we coming back 360 degrees to their ‘Umbrella’? Either way, the year-end sounds better than ever!
‘Pseudopop’
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Text by Monika Izabela Trigwell
22nd November 2018
has been issued as the conceptual sequel to its parent album. Themed around ‘The Watchers’ from the iconic artwork of 
, Jarre himself has described the album as “Equinoxe on steroids”.
appeared at the end of 2016, it was the weakest of the trilogy, sounding slightly underwhelming and even unfinished. But with ‘Equinoxe Infinity’, the longer gestation period has allowed Jarre to be more focussed, highly appropriate with the binocular presence of ‘The Watchers’.
, ‘The Watchers (Movement 1)’ shapes a brooding mood with an ivory shaped motif before leading into the glorious arpeggiator driven ‘Flying Totems (Movement 2)’, its sweeps and textures rich with melody and recalling 
than ‘Equinoxe’.
to drift into a bubbly cascade of manipulated voices on ‘If The Wind Could Speak (Movement 5)’.
and a Europop-styled rhythmic mood like ACE OF BASS with traces of melody derived from the bridge of ‘Equinoxe V’. But the overall result is disappointing despite Jarre’s vision of “trying to survive in a hectic VR game with no real beginning and no real end, trapped in a world of “infinity“’.
was to Oxygène.
which also includes the original ‘Equinoxe’ album, ‘Equinoxe Infinity’, four posters and download card
showed a further growth in what can only be described as a neoclassical amalgamation of synth and then Park took to the stage, performing in the Norwegian version of ‘Les Miserables’, playing the role of Fantine. The musical turned out to be the most popular in its genre and Park proved again that whatever she does, is perfection.
continues the trends set on ‘Apocalypse Pop’, with the eponymous single creeping from a melancholic affair, into an inferno of ominous sounding bass and powerful, if childlike vocals, building up to an expansive cinematic piece of dread.
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