Category: Reviews (Page 53 of 200)

KANGA You & I Will Never Die

18 April 2021 /


Hailing from Los Angeles, Kanga DuChamp has cultured a sound which manages to musically straddle industrial, synthwave and pop genres whilst meeting somewhere in the middle.

As well as being an artist, Duchamp has developed a sideline career in working on film soundtracks (focusing on the horror genre) including ‘The Conjuring’ and ‘Insidious’ franchises. With early support in her career from Gary Numan and previous production work from Rhys Fulber of FRONT LINE ASSEMBLY, KANGA has developed a sound which draws from a variety of themes including angst, melancholy and sexual fetishism, but shot through with an unmistakable pop sensibility.

Following 2019’s ‘Eternal Daughter’ EP, ‘You & I Will Never Die’ sees KANGA teaming up with producer Justin McGrath (NIN / TOOL) and distribution via a new label Artoffact. After the two minute ‘Preface’, ‘Home’ hits the ground running with a pulsating synth bass that recalls French synthwave artist PERTURBATOR and this leads neatly into the single ‘Godless’.

KANGA is quoted as saying that ‘Godless’ was “really satisfying compositionally, I felt like I got my masochistic Catholicism to dance”; the track documents a toxic relationship with lyrics about “loving you but you’re making me sick” and “I wanna believe so bad it’s gonna put me in a body bag”. Although lyrically dark, the track is melodic with blippy chorus synths coasting above driving effected guitars and a comparison made that this is a female NIN isn’t a million miles off.

‘Brother’ is lyrically the most twisted track on ‘You & I Will Never Die’; recounting a romantic relationship where KANGA herself was cast as a sister to the protagonist in the title. The artist herself seemed less worried about the controversy the incestuous lyrics might provoke; “Brother was intense. Everyone loved the instrumental but when I added those lyrics I had a handful of people say ‘no one is going to play this in a club.’ F*** that, I bet they will! Where’s everyone’s sense of humour?? Listen to the story, don’t get caught up in the disgust!”.

After the midpoint break of ‘Interlude’, ‘Moscow’ is the second single from the album and follows a similar musical pathway to the earlier tracks but the 4/4 kicks are thankfully more broken down and this does provide some sonic relief.

‘Say Goodbye’ stands out with its 909 drums, anthemic chorus and background vocal sampling / bass sound which deviates from most of the other songs on ‘You & I Will Never Die’. The intro to ‘Waiting’ is the most overtly NIN-sounding part on ‘You & I Will Never Die’ and the track features a more dynamic production approach. If a listener was to pick any song which lingers after the album has finished then ‘Waiting’ would be the one; less linear in approach with a vocal which wanders less predictably rather than steadfastly hitting the 4/4 beat. The sound design with sampled guitar plucks and JAPAN-esque synth sounds combines to produce the highlight track on the album.

Consuming ‘You & I Will Never Die’ as a whole, it sometimes feels that KANGA is striving to hone that one perfect song which defines her ‘sound’, to the point where many of the tracks have a tendency to blur into one another. Most feature the same driving 4/4 kick, 16 beat sequencer bass and vocal production style; this lack of variety is a shame as DuChamp is an undeniable talent but ‘You & I Will Never Die’ doesn’t quite seem to build on the momentum created by her debut and ‘Eternal Daughter’.

That said, ‘You & I Will Never Die’ is not a bad album, it’s immaculately produced with a stunning cover design, but lacks that certain je ne sais quoi which would help mark it as a classic.

‘You & I Will Never Die’ is released by Artoffact Records and as a CD or download from
https://kanga.bandcamp.com/album/you-and-i-will-never-die

https://www.facebook.com/kangakullt/

https://twitter.com/KANGAkult

https://www.instagram.com/k.a.n.g.a/

https://open.spotify.com/album/5IQ63F8M5jYE4wNT13lJOE

Text by Paul Boddy
18th April 2021

WE ARE REPLICA Miami

15 April 2021 /


Arty dark synth duo WE ARE REPLICA are back with a new video for the song ‘Miami’, a highlight from their debut long player ‘Cleared Vision’.

“After the music was written and recorded I thought it sounded like Miami and improvised the first verse whereas the other verses came together the day after”, said Martin Kinz, the German half of WE ARE REPLICA about the song, “There is no particular meaning to the words. It’s all about matching sentences, that eventually become poetry. The chorus was written a bit later, and has more of a message, as in ‘every day’s a holiday’ is a state you can choose, that’s why we go on to ‘choose to go Miami’”.

“We wanted to show the apparent fake of a place like Miami, designing a set to create an atmosphere with plastic which represents the vibe of this kind of world” recalled Nadège Préaudat in her deep Gallic tones, “It could be found in many places but Miami sounded like a good example for this stereotype.”

“We wear masks and similar outfits to show the lack of individuality where everyone in society has to fit in. The real paradise that Miami is in many people’s minds is projected into a safe with a poison apple.” she clarified on the concept of the striking visual accompaniment, “Like the words of the song, the video is very abstract and we did not want to tell a story, so the viewer or listener can create their own meaning. The use of hands signifies the obstacles that we come across in day to day life. We finally face the truth by washing off the masks.”

Sharing the vocals, ‘Miami’ is musically a mix of post punk and pop with a rather suitable psychedelic influence. to confirm Kinz’s analysis that “our sense of reality is only in our heads”.

“The shoot was very DIY and the shots really came about quite organically. My take on the song is that it’s quite nonsensical in a way, but it’s like Miami becomes this fantasy place” director Tamsin Kavanagh remembered on the realisation of the video, “Thanks to Jorge’s amazing make up, and Ieva’s styling, Mart and Nadège became a bit like two aliens to me, that seem a bit out of place in the world, but then really come alive in the inner world, so the contrast between these two felt important.”

It proved to be an interesting experience technically for Cavanagh too: “All of the outside shots are quite smooth – shot with a stabiliser, and there is not a lot of movement. But then the inside shots (made possible by The Steamship PS allowing us to use their amazing space), that were shot in the basement, is where they really come alive, and I shot a lot of these with no stabiliser to accentuate that sense of dynamism and letting go. Similarly with the lighting – outside we made use of the natural lighting, which was quite stark compared with the colour gels I used inside- so it was a contrast between cold and warm, static and dynamic.”

‘Miami’ is from the album ‘Cleared Vision’, available as a download direct from https://wearereplica.bandcamp.com/album/cleared-vision

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Text and Interview by Chi Ming Lai
Photos by Pauline Mongarny
15th April 2021

GIRL ONE & THE GREASE GUNS A Figure In The Underpass

5 April 2021 /


Formed in late 2012, the mysterious GIRL ONE & THE GREASE GUNS released seven singles, one full length long player ‘Night Of The Living Electrical Appliances’ and a farewell mini-album ‘Transmissions From The Glass Factory’.

Utilising raw recording techniques, just about in-tune synths and a slightly off-key girly voice, they captured a wonderful sound that evoked memories of paraffin heaters beating the chill. But with no band photographs or live appearances, before any pesky kids could unmask their true identities, GIRL ONE & THE GREASE GUNS disbanded.

The new “Best Of” album ‘A Figure In The Underpass’ captures their intrigue in one handy place.

Opening the collection with 2015’s ‘The Shatterproof Man’, despite the John Foxx-esque title and the detuned synth backing, it still sparkles with pretty melodies like early OMD meeting THE RONETTES while following it on the compilation is the enjoyably squiggly unorthodox pop of ‘(It’s A) Warning Sign (Blue Lights)’.

Ultra-violence and JG Ballard were among the recurring dystopian influences in GIRL ONE & THE GREASE GUNS, but the Farfisa-tinged ‘Hitting The Brick Wall’ managed to be quite bouncy despite its title, although ‘The Voices In The Walls’ captured the spectre of Big Brother and the surveillance society.

One of the band’s final recordings ‘Destination Yesterday’ exploited metallic sequencers, detuned synths and those characteristic nonchalant female vocals that gave the anonymous combo cult appeal and with that in mind, the feisty ‘Suburban Robot’ recalls the magic of early ‘604’ era LADYTRON while amusingly, ‘Bashed, Beaten And Broken (Trip The Switch)’ with its South Yorkshire lass twang sounds like THE HUMAN LEAGUE during their Fast Product era fronted by Susanne Sulley!

When GIRL ONE & THE GREASE GUNS occasionally laid off the aural harshness to reveal a softer side, they could be eerily magical. With its beautiful atmospheric quality smothered in icy synth strings and grainy vox samples, the marvellous ‘No Longer Spellbound’ from 2014 imagined if ‘Twins Peaks’ set was in The Lake District.

Their most powerfully overt electronic pop single came with the sweet but sinister ‘Good Morning, Mr X’ as Sissy Space Echo, Warren Betamax, Charles Bronson Burner and Bruce LeeFax bid adieu in 2019. Meanwhile, ‘Forever Seems So Long’ was almost wasted as its B-side, featuring the sort of mighty swooping detuned synths that would make OMD proud. But around that same period, another single ‘Turn It Around Again’ transported the Wall Of Sound into the cold greyness of Northern England.

Reflecting being recorded in “a freezing cold structure in the middle of a timber yard”, 2013’s ‘Jessica 6’ remains GIRL ONE & THE GREASE GUNS’ greatest moment; a tribute to the cult Sci-Fi favourite ‘Logan’s Run’ and the alluring character played by Jenny Agutter, the reverbed post-punk cacophony laced with icy Yamaha string machine still comes over like THE PIPETTES fronting an OMD assisted JOY DIVISION.

Despite being capable of melody, GIRL ONE & THE GREASE GUNS couldn’t help their progressive mechanical desolation and their third single ‘(Here Come) The Catastrophe Machines’ is basically ‘Nag Nag Nag’ but more violent! As ‘(She Sits) In The Freezer’ captures further winter discontentment, ‘A Figure In The Underpass’ closes with the dysfunctional indie synthpop of ‘Driving Without Headlights (Once Again)’.

Superseding and improving on the earlier compilation ‘The Strange Little Lies That Humans Draw In the Dust’, ‘A Figure In The Underpass’ gathers twenty tracks on the CD. But although the download offers another five, a number of notable tracks are omitted with the superb cover of THE BLANCHE HUDSON WEEKEND’s ‘Noise & Fury’ being among the more immediate GIRL ONE & THE GREASE GUNS recordings that are missed.

With a manifesto to “thrive on causing confusion with a mixture of pure synthpop and more experimental electronic sounds”, GIRL ONE & THE GREASE GUNS certainly had fun with their DIY noise fest and they leave this enjoyable compilation which acts as an unintentional soundtrack for the frosty climate of the strange times that the world finds itself in.

‘A Figure In The Underpass’ is released as a CD and download by Next Phase : Normal Records, available direct from https://girloneandthegreaseguns.bandcamp.com/album/a-figure-in-the-underpass

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Girl-One-And-The-Grease-Guns/440754999339179

Text by Chi Ming Lai
5th April 2021

FORM This World Is Ours

2 April 2021 /


‘This World Is Ours’ is the sophomore album from FORM, following up 2018’s debut offering ‘Defiance + Entropy’.

The trio comprise singer Mark Bebb of SHELTER, Keith Trigwell of DEPECHE MODE tribute band THE DEVOUT and producer Rob Dust, whose studio prowess can be heard on works by dark European electronic acts such as DE/VISION, MESH and TORUL.

With songs written by Trigwell and Bebb, ‘This World Is Ours’ uses the one word song title aesthetic like Gary Numan’s The Pleasure Principle’, COCTEAU TWINS ‘Treasure’ and ULTRAVOX’s ‘Brilliant’ did.

Beginning with a short but epic untitled gothic instrumental swathed in the spirit of Gary Numan, the album starts proper with the type of industrial Schaffel anthem done many times by MESH; ‘You’ is accomplished although it is unfortunate that Bebb sings of being “predictable”. Whatever, this template continues to be favoured by acts aspiring to join the Amphi circuit and will remain popular with their crowds for years to come.

The opening salvo is followed by a pair of sombre complex ballads in ‘Here’ and ‘Succumb’ which will need an appropriate frame of mind to digest. Meanwhile the brooding ‘Extinction’ does build steadily but could have done with gathering more momentum in its progress. But the rhythmic ‘Glitter’ utilises cracking glam claps and grabs the bull by the horns with an electronic pop tune that THE HUMAN LEAGUE used to be so good at; a fabulous whirring synth solo from Trigwell in the style of Billy Currie is also a nice touch.

‘Glitter’ is followed by another instrumental interlude that takes its cue from DEPECHE MODE before they became a tedious blues influenced pseudo-rock combo… but FORM, please give these things titles in future because it is extremely annoying for reviewers that these worthy pieces have no identity or point of reference!

Battening down the hatches in the face of adversity, ‘Protector’ is another ballad but in waltz time, while ‘Hazed’ plays on the propulsive Schaffel thing again with Bebb hitting falsetto as it attempts to emulate ‘Strict Machine’ by GOLDFRAPP. The speedy thrust of ‘Viva’ is like a goth ERASURE doing ‘I Feel Love’ and the closest the album gets towards the more sparkly template of SHELTER, but ‘Athenian’ deals with toxic relationships with some suitably sharp backing.

A four-to-the-floor dance anthem in ‘World’ closes the album on an optimistic note after all the intensity and could be considered FORM’s own electro take on the ethos of ‘I’d Like To Teach The World To Sing’. But has the album ended? No… and a final untitled instrumental sourced from the DEPECHE MODE B-side ‘Christmas Island’ sneaks in to present a reality check.

FORM have produced a worthy second album and if you enjoyed ‘Defiance + Entropy’, then ‘This World Is Ours’ is a natural progression that will also be appreciated. Followers of DE/VISION, MESH, TORUL, MACHINISTA and BEBORN BETON might find this musical statement on the fragility of the world up their dark alley as well.

‘This World Is Ours’ is released on 9th April 2021 by Infacted Recordings as a CD, pre-order from http://www.poponaut.de/form-this-world-ours-p-20193.html

Download available from https://infactedrecordings.bandcamp.com/album/this-world-is-ours

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Text by Chi Ming Lai
Photo by Andreas Lechleiter
2nd April 2021

STEVEN JONES & LOGAN SKY European Lovers

31 March 2021 /

Steven Jones and Logan Sky were introduced to each other by their mutual friend Steve Strange.

The late VISAGE front man and Blitz Club figurehead had been working with Logan Sky in the rebooted version of that band which returned with the ‘Hearts & Knives’ album in 2013. As if born into the wrong era, Steven Jones’ neu romance lyrics with their slight dystopian edge have often been inspired by a fascination for international travel and the inherent history it uncovers. Having released their debut full length long player ‘Hans und Lieselotte’ in 2018, further albums ‘The Electric Eye’ and ‘Rotating Angels’ followed in quick succession.

And now the duo present their fourth in three years. As the title track, ‘European Lovers’ bookends the album, the opening variant pulsating the mood while sweetened by soothing sax from the ever dependable Gary Barnacle who himself played with VISAGE and SOFT CELL. Steven Jones ably delivers the fractured mannered baritone that could be seen to be deriving from anyone one of Scott Walker, David Bowie, Bryan Ferry or Midge Ure. Meanwhile the closing postscript provided a hypnotic arpeggio and Polymoog vox humana to accompanying a spoken word take on ‘European Lovers’.

Lost in the rainy streets of Mittel Europa, Jones ponders his ‘Survival’ over tinkling ivories like Ferry on ‘A Song For Europe’ where “the dream of dying is the dream of living”. But the album paces up with ‘When The Night Falls In’, an infectious syncopated electro set-piece accented by the occasional burst of synthetic toms.

Echoing ‘Fade To Grey’, Charlotte Condemine provides an alluring Gallic monologue to the wonderful ‘Sons of Hallucination’. Meanwhile Jones borrows some phrasing from ‘Wishing Well’, the 1987 hit by Terence Trent D’Arby which was produced by Martyn Ware of HEAVEN 17. It’s a curious mix that is ultimately satisfying for the headphones of any passing New Europeans. And when the soprano sax comes in, it all becomes reminiscent of BLACK if Colin Verncombe had into VISAGE.

‘Awaken From The Dream’ utilises an electric piano for a short intermission while the exquisite synth tones of ‘The Girl On The 8.45’ captures an inevitably doomed romance in a tale of unrequited love for a beautiful stranger on the daily commute.

With an ear for obscure jewels, a tense offbeat squelch shapes ‘Cafe Europe’, an excellent cover of a song by FATAL CHARM who supported ULTRAVOX and OMD back in 1980; the cult Nottingham duo too had a fascination inter-continental travel and their Midge Ure-produced single ‘Paris’ captured the days before The Channel Tunnel.

Both projecting a stark austere, the bubbling melancholy of ‘Lovers & Losers’ and spy drama chill of ‘All Her Things Are Gone’ mine an era of long overcoats when The Third Man could walk in at any moment. And although ‘Like A Ghost’ uses a largely similar drumless template to ‘All Her Things Are Gone’, its subtle congas provide an atmospheric backbone alongside the virtual muted guitar loop. As the penultimate statement to the main act, ‘Past & Future Lives’ offers a mournful piano ballad.

For those who opt for the CD, there are three bonus tracks and assorted remixes of ‘Lovers & Losers’ including a brooding one from American gothwavers VANDAL MOON. ‘The Shape Of Darkness’ does what it says on the tin as another electric piano spoken word piece accompanied by an eerie falsetto backing vocal, while ‘Politics & Gesture’ is a rather sombre observation on the state of the nation.

Meanwhile ‘Another Hallucination’ exhibits a threatening throb at the start of a darker alternate take of ‘Sons Of Hallucination’ that allows more room for Gary Barnacle’s soprano sax, with Jones offering another spoken interpretation alongside the feminine prose en Français.

‘European Lovers’ is exactly as it suggests and harks back to a Europe after the rain, conjuring up images of mysterious shadows and enigmatic romances. An authentic accomplished collection, it contains some terrific moments, although its emphasis on monochromatic mood is perhaps a challenge over so many tracks.

However, what Steven Jones and Logan Sky have is a genuine understated passion for the heritage of their influences, very much the antithesis to the genre hopping style over substance posing of HURTS and la faux sincérité of other duos that could be mentioned.

‘European Lovers’ is released by Etrangersmusique on 2nd April 2021 as a CD or download from https://etrangersmusique.bandcamp.com/album/european-lovers

https://www.etrangersmusique.com

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https://www.instagram.com/etrangersmusique/

http://www.logansky.co.uk/

https://twitter.com/LoganSky

https://www.instagram.com/logan.sky/

Text by Chi Ming Lai
31st March 2021

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