Category: Reviews (Page 149 of 200)

HYPERBUBBLE Music To Color By

24 June 2016 /

HYPERBUBBLE have always been like a living / breathing pop art concept so their unique music and coloring book artefact for some workshops at The San Antonio Museum of Art was not entirely a surprise.

The quirky husband and wife duo of Jeff and Jess DeCuir have composed a ten track instrumental soundtrack which can accompany the therapeutic shading of a 16 page 8.5 x 11 inch coloring book featuring art by HYPERBUBBLE, or act as an entity of its own.

With phasers set to fun, numbers such as the percussive ‘Sunburst Yellow’ and synthwavish ‘Poppy Red’ provide a toe-tapping discotronic backdrop. ‘Nectar’ with its percolating bass and spacey vibes takes in a bit of Giorgio Moroder while the high energy bursts of ‘Black Raspberry’ might induce some frantic scribbling, whether there is a preference for crayons or Sharpies.

But best of all are the two playful album closers ‘Hot Pink’ and ‘Spanish Orange’; the former is an uptempo bleep fest punctuated by choppy synthetic orchestration and a barrage of swirls, while the latter could be Gary Numan reworked to be less dystopian and more child friendly to accompany a futuristic rework of ‘Charlie Brown’.

‘Music To Color By’ is a wonderfully immediate wordless wonder, that is neither ambient or symphonic, with a set of straightforward synthpop instrumentals for those who miss the B-sides or album interludes of yore. With or without the coloring book, this 33 minute collection is a good one.

Hyperbubble Music To Colour byCD+book‘Music To Color By’ is available in either CD+coloring book or download+digital book formats from https://hyperbubble.bandcamp.com/album/music-to-color-by

http://www.hyperbubble.net/

https://www.facebook.com/hyperbubble

https://twitter.com/Hyperbubble

Text by Chi Ming Lai
24th June 2016

LADYHAWKE Wild Things

22 June 2016 /

ladyhawke-wild-things-LP

The music industry can be a fickle mistress, one moment you’re flavour of the month, a few wrong steps later and before you know it you’re on a one-way elevator trip to Obscurityville.

Pip Brown AKA LADYHAWKE is undoubtedly acutely aware of this. Back in 2009 her slow burning self-titled debut album was immensely successful, clocking up Gold UK sales after word of mouth and support sets with THE PRESETS helped tracks such as ‘My Delirium’, ‘Professional Suicide’ and ‘Magic’ eventually reach an audience that they truly deserved.

Mixing a sound which was synth and New Wave heavy, but also crammed full of brilliant songwriting and quirky pop hooks, ‘Ladyhawke’ was in many ways ahead of its time, predating the eventual unstoppable electropop ascendency of KATY PERRY, TAYLOR SWIFT and ELLIE GOULDING. After gaining props from KYLIE and COURTNEY LOVE, it appeared that the world was seemingly at Ms. Brown’s feet, but rather than quickly capitalising on the debut album’s success, it took three years before releasing the much delayed ‘Anxiety’.

Instead of attempting to repeat the formula of her debut, ‘Anxiety’ saw a change in sound, hardly any synths or electronics, plus more guitars and a debut single ‘Black White & Blue’ that featured a chorus which unfortunately owed more than its fair share to THE BEE GEES ‘Tragedy’. Despite picking up some positive reviews, the consensus was that Pip Brown had lost sight of what made LADYHAWKE so marketable and successful in the first place…

So now, another four years later and LADYHAWKE returns with ‘Wild Things’ and guess what? Lessons have been learnt and the synths and electronics are back… album opener ‘A Love Song’ is pure unadulterated electronic pop, all syncopated synth bassline, electro drums, a soaring chorus to die for and mercifully no superfluous guitars or Rhodes electric pianos. ‘The River’ is a little more lightweight, but über-catchy with a “na-na-na” vocal hook and the kind of indie sound that you’d expect to hear when walking into Top Shop or River Island.

‘Wild Things’ is the first of two tracks here which owe more than a small debt to TEC favourites CHVRCHES, a stretched out ambient minute long synth pad intro leads into the kind of synth bass and sampled vocal hook favoured by Lauren Mayberry and co. A lighter drum sound and yearning chorus line (“We dance together like we’re wild things in the night”) mean that there’s enough here for the song to stand on its own merits though.

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‘Let it Roll’ ups the tempo with skippy drums and again makes a welcome return to the more lo-fi sound of ‘Ladyhawke’ – guitars feature this time, but in a welcome funky New Wave-style vibe.

‘Sweet Fascination’ has a hypnotic synthetic and almost Jarre sounding bassline holding the track together with its chord progression recalling the work of TALKING HEADS.

‘Hillside Avenue’ is the second CHVRCHES-influenced track here, albeit with a splash of PURITY RING thrown in for good measure, again there’s the obligatory sampled vocal, although this time more obviously-so. But a Ragga-inflected kick / snare beat in the chorus just about keeps it from sounding like an out-and-out pastiche.

‘Money to Burn’ starts brilliantly like a PIXIES song played on synths, but unfortunately its chorus doesn’t quite live up to its killer intro and no track really needs a synth panpipe in it, does it? Album closer ‘Dangerous’ has a funky 16 beat arpeggiated Synth Wave bassline and another big, uplifting chorus. The track instrumentation here is beautifully minimalistic, which again is a sign of a well-written song, the more detailed vocal production featuring some subtly autotuned vocals and rounds off ‘Wild Things’ in an up manner.

Whilst never quite hitting the heights of the material on ‘Ladyhawke’, ‘Wild Things’ is at least a major improvement on ‘Anxiety’ and in a nutshell is the album that probably should have followed it. The writing and production is far more contemporary and apart from the two overtly CHVRCHES-style references, this aims to reclaim a sound that initially LADYHAWKE made her own.

Whether Pip Brown can continue to make up the ground lost with her second album is debatable, but at least this is a welcome step in the right direction.

‘Wild Things’ is released as a CD, vinyl and download by Mid Century Records

http://www.ladyhawkemusic.com/

https://www.facebook.com/Ladyhawke/

Text by Paul Boddy
22nd June 2016

VINCE CLARKE & PAUL HARTNOLL 2Square

18 June 2016 /

VINCE-CLARKE-PAUL-HARTNOLL-2-SquareIt doesn’t have to be like that…

When you have a collaborative project which sees the merging of two of the founding fathers of British Electronica and Synthpop, there is always going to be a huge weight of expectation attached to it.

For many, a joint work between Vince Clarke and one half of ORBITAL’s Paul Hartnoll would be akin to a guitar hook up between Eric Clapton and David Gilmour, such is the importance of both of the producers to the scene(s) that they helped define.

With that opening statement in mind, it is with trepidation that this album should be approached, will it live up to the legend that both Clarke and Hartnoll have created?

Lead single and opening track from ‘2Square’ is ‘Better Have a Drink to Think’, with its Casio calculator bleeps and bass pulse; everything is all very Kraftwerkian until the vocal hook takes the song into Electro Swing territory. There is a very fine line between catchy and annoying, and it’s hard at times to gauge as to which category this track falls into.

‘Zombie Blip’ which follows is a pretty perfunctory synth work-out with predictable stabs and a MAPS inspired breakdown. Probably the kindest thing to say about ‘Zombie Blip’ would be that it could possibly find a home on a computer game soundtrack somewhere. ‘Do-a Bong’ sounds like an ORBITAL pastiche, but with some very unwelcome horns and another irritating vocal. Of all tracks on ‘2Square’, ‘All Out’ has the most commercial possibilities. Very vocal-driven with an underpinning acidic 303, given a decent set of contemporary house remixes, this could conceivably chart…

What is a little unfathomable is why this album, along with the VCMG and MG projects yet again ventures down the faceless Techno route – admittedly ORBITAL were highly respected for their dance / rave anthems ‘Chime’, ‘Belfast’ and ‘The Box’, but they were successful because the tracks hinged around massive riffs and sounds which set them apart from their more Euro-centric peers. There are glimmers of quality here, but much of it comes across as throwaway, the vocals which have been recorded for the project sounding like generic / soul-less library samples.

There is nothing wrong with having splashes of humour in electronic music, both ERASURE with their ABBA tributes and ORBITAL with tracks such as ‘Style’ and live mash-ups of BON JOVI and BELINDA CARLISLE were welcome tongue-in-cheek elements in a genre that often took itself too seriously. However here, the use of brass and the vocals on the novelty Electro Swing tracks don’t seem to sit comfortably with both the ideologies of most of Clarke’s and Hartnoll’s former work.

There are sporadic moments of brilliance; ‘Single Function’ starts off like a ‘Speak & Spell’ era DEPECHE MODE track with ARP electronic percussion, before breaking down to a mournful Jarre-esque string pad and a cyclical Juno chord melody. The closing ‘Underwater’ is beautifully understated, combining a hypnotic TANGERINE DREAM sequencer melody and lead line which easily manages to sustain its five minutes track length.

The two recent JEAN-MICHEL JARRE projects have shown that primarily instrumental synth music can still have a market and ironically Clarke’s ‘Automatic Parts 1 + 2’ on ‘Electronica 1 – The Time Machine’ were head and shoulders above anything here. At least with the title of this project there is an allusion that this isn’t going to be a cutting edge album, but given the incredible skill set and equipment possessed by both contributors, this is a serious disappointment.

‘2Square’ indeed…

‘2Square’ is released by Very Records

http://veryrecords.com/portfolio-item/2square-album/

https://www.facebook.com/VeryRecords/

Text by Paul Boddy
18th June 2016

MARSHEAUX Ath.Lon

13 June 2016 /

A fair few years have passed since Marsheaux debuted with ‘Popcorn’ in their native Greece.

Marianthi Melitsi and Sophie Sarigiannidou had been bred on the staple diet of all the correct electronic acts of the synth dominated age: DEPECHE MODE, ERASURE, THE HUMAN LEAGUE, OMD and NEW ORDER being firm favourites. 2004 heralded their first album, ‘E-Bay Queen’ on Undo Records, which was duly noted in the “we love anything synth” circles across Europe.

It was followed by ‘Peek A Boo’, which included the magnificent take on New Order’s ‘Regret’. It wasn’t until the third LP, ‘Lumineux Noir’, that the duo got a widespread recognition, leading to festival appearances and securing valuable support slots as well as remixing many of their genre’s peers.

‘Inhale’ was what the Greek songstresses described as “atmospheric electro pop”, and 2015 brought their most daring project yet, a cover of the entire of ‘A Broken Frame’ by DEPECHE MODE. Courageous as it was, the pair managed to grasp the soul of the most unloved DM album and transform it into a new dimension of unconventional sounds and vocals.
And now comes ‘Ath.Lon’.

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The opus’ title, as obscure as it may sound, actually derives from the names of two cities: Athens and London. Both capitals served as a core for MARSHEAUX ‘s new material, with Marianthi moving to London, forcing journeys between England and Greece. The ten tracks were produced by MARSHEAUX themselves, with Undo house production duo FOTONOVELA and Rodrigo Silva-Ramos, while mixed in London by Nikonn and Dominique Brethes at FloW Mastering.

The opening ‘Burning’ is harsh, sexy, in your face, and with clear Numan influences. The soft voices mesmerise beyond control, weaving in between the heavy synth havoc, leading onto ‘Like A Movie’; a classic, cheerfully uncomplicated synth pop tune with a Motorik backbone, modelled on early DEPECHE MODE.

‘Sunday’ steps in with demure vocals over a slower paced track. The excellently layered sounds float above the clouds of regal electronica, before the classic sounding ‘Wild Heart’ enters, with NEW ORDER-esque guitar added to a piece SAINT ETIENNE wouldn’t be ashamed of. ‘Now You Are Mine’ superbly towers above the rest, with confident vocals, packaged within a dose of ‘Ultra’ era DEPECHE MODE, while ‘Strong Enough’ is an effervescent amalgamation of sassy, crunchy and capable synth, laced with the signature sexy rendition from Sophie and Marianthi.

The first single heralding ‘Ath.Lon’ is ‘Safe Tonight’. This light-hearted nod to classic synth is optimistic, sunny and warm. The superb production bursts into being with this subdued, yet powerful number. ‘Let’s Take A Car’ brings the tempo to “fast is best” again, where the girls want to “mess around all night”, driving around the city and making “a fuss… so madly in love”. It’s yet another untroubled track reminiscent of the best early electronica.

The closing ‘The Beginning Of The End’ ominously wraps around the production with excellent tonality and superb vocals. MARSHEAUX really leave the best till last here; including astonishing strings, marvellous synth and the atmosphere of uncertainty and despair, this can only equal an evocative synth track which the audiences have grown to expect from the proficient Greek Goddesses.

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If the above wasn’t enough, MARSHEAUX have treated the grateful receiver to five additional tracks as a bonus. iTunes exclusive ‘Butterflies’ flutters with classic Sophie / Marianthi hooks while from ‘The.Ath.Lon’ boxed set, ‘Happiness’ glows with Greek sunshine, while the tempo slows down with ‘How Beautiful’ and ‘Stay Wild’; the latter laced with excellent synthscapes. A faster pace returns to wrap up the gift with ‘Treasure’, which is bursting with zest and freshness, leaving the listener wishing there was more to come.

The obvious success of ‘A Broken Frame’ seems to have elevated the duo to the comfort of having the ability to look into the future through a lens of optimism and new found confidence. ‘Ath.Lon’ could also stand for “athlos”, meaning achievement for the pair, with this glorious production crowning their twelve years’ of accomplishments. MARSHEAUX do not disappoint, bringing the ever fresh, uncomplicated and honest material, whilst remaining unassuming and true to themselves. It’s another triumph.

‘Ath.Lon’ is released by Undo Records in CD, vinyl and download formats, iTunes version contains the additional track ‘Butterflies’

‘The.Ath.Lon’ limited 2CD box set with four bonus tracks and 14 art prints is available from:
http://undorecords.bigcartel.com/product/limited-cdun62-marsheaux-ath-lon-2cd-box

http://www.marsheaux.com/

https://www.facebook.com/marsheaux/

https://twitter.com/marsheaux

http://www.undorecords.com/

https://www.instagram.com/marsheaux/

Text by Monika Izabela Goss
13th June 2016

KID MOXIE Dirty Air

11 June 2016 /

Elena Charbila-by-Jamie Clarke02‘Dirty Air’ is the first new material to be previewed from KID MOXIE’s upcoming EP ‘Perfect Shadow’.

The musical project of LA based Elena Charbila, the acclaimed accorded to her second album ’1888’ from magazines such as Mojo led her to be dubbed “the Greek GOLDFRAPP”.

With the gentle piano flourishes and Film Noir atmospherics on ‘Dirty Air’, the cryptic promo video sees Charbila doing her femme fatale thing within a suitably cinematic, but surreal environment. She said: “The whole video has to do with appearances being deceiving. With love being a guttural feeling. How we ‘vomit’ emotion. How falling for someone can feel like falling into an abyss. That black oil serves as a portable abyss.”

The sumptuous Hellectro vibe of ‘Dirty Air’ is deeply reminiscent of fellow Athenian songstresses SARAH P. and MARSHEAUX. It’s a sign of how musically creative the region has become over the years and with artists of similar heritage such as MARINA & THE DIAMONDS and FEATHERS also making waves around the world, Greece is the word…

Meanwhile, the new KID MOXIE EP scheduled for release in July is a natural progression following the artistic leap from 2009’s debut ‘Selector’ to ‘1888’. A MARSHEAUX remix of ‘Dirty Air’ will also be featuring. Prepare for a work swathed in darkness and light with a luscious nocturnal moodiness, layered in melancholy.

‘Dirty Air’ is available as a download single

http://www.facebook.com/kidmoxie

https://twitter.com/KIDMOXIEMUSIC

Text by Chi Ming Lai
Photos by Jamie Clarke
11th June 2016

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