Category: Reviews (Page 10 of 200)

HYPERBUBBLE Cowgirls & Synthesizers OST

21 March 2024 / electricityclub

‘Cowgirls & Synthesizers’ is the amusing 2023 docufilm by the quirky Texan synth do HYPERBUBBLE.

Comprising of married couple Jessica and Jeff DeCuir, ‘Cowgirls & Synthesizers’ traces their two decade career and the true-story of how HYPERBUBBLE drove to Nashville to record a Country and Western album ‘Western Ware’ using only synthesizers, drum machines and theremin!

Directed by Joe Wallace, with noted musical mischief maker Ricardo Autobahn narrating, commentary is provided by Samantha Newark of cult cartoon series ‘Jem & The Holograms’, Manda Rin of BIS, SHOES, FREEZEPOP and OUR DAUGHTERS WEDDING while somewhere along the way, HYPERBUBBLE end up winners in Dolly Parton’s Netflix song contest with their version of ‘Jolene’ as part of the promotion for her series ‘Heartstrings’.

It all sounds crazy but as Jeff DeCuir once said to ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK in 2014: “Synthesizers with their pitch bend and portamento really lend themselves to that country twang! And the first three letters of ‘Moog’ spell MOO!” – and that recollection has not only ended up in the film but also the soundtrack album!

The record is packed full of fun and captures the essence of the film, beginning with the speedy electro-blueglass of the ‘Cowgirls & Synthesizers’ title song and its shopping list of iconic synths. Meanwhile, ‘Bionic Girl’ continues in the same frantic spirit if based around a more Sci-Fi aesthetic

One of the highlights is ‘Will You Spin For Me?’, a 1984 song originally recorded by SHOES who while known as power pop guitar band, actually had an interim period as a more synth-driven new wave act; here HYPERBUBBLE do fairly faithful cover with SHOES gamely providing backing vocals over the buzzy backdrop.

In 2021, HYPERBUBBLE did a remix of Samantha Newark’s ‘Hologram’ and they pay tribute to her on ‘I Was a Teenage Jem Girl’ and at the end, the lady herself mentions how ‘Jem & The Holograms’ had a live drummer before HYPERBUBBLE celebrate the joys of their ‘Little Drum Machine’; and while Roger Linn’ once posed ironically posed with a sticker that said “DRUM MACHINES HAVE NO SOUL”, the irony has been the since DEPECHE MODE opted to use a numbskull Drumhead, all the soul has gone from their mechanically driven classics when performed live!

Another cover comes in the shape of the OUR DAUGHTER’S WEDDING instrumental ‘Digital Cowboy’ with their own Scott Simon guesting on synth while not a cover, ‘Hyperactive Moviemix’’ concludes with a mad synth barrage and a solo snatch of their best known tune ‘Candy Apple Daydreams’!

The mood changes with ‘No Time To Say Goodbye’ which is a murder ballad in the classic folk tradition but with fabulously ghostly Theremin solo but when ‘Bionic Girl’ is reprised as an authentic “Bluegrass Version”, it acts as a fitting bookend to in validate their cross-genre adventure.

At just under half an hour, with its genre bending antics and places where no synth duo has gone before, ‘Cowgirls & Synthesizers’ is a fun and wacky experience, just like its parent docufilm. HYPERBUBBLE straddle that fine line between deserving an award or a straitjacket, but that is why they so appealing…

The ‘Cowgirls & Synthesizers’ soundtrack album is released by ArtLabTX films Label, available as a yellow vinyl LP, CD and download via https://hyperbubble.bandcamp.com/album/cowgirls-and-synthesizers-original-motion-picture-soundtrack

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Text by Chi Ming Lai
21 March 2024

KALEIDA In Arms

18 March 2024 / electricityclub

A few years ago, it looked as though KALEIDA would disband due to the pressures of parenting and the shifting patterns of life.

But Christina Wood and Cicely Goulder have again managed to make their long distance creative partnership work again and their reward is their third album ‘In Arms’. As the title suggests, it has been an impassioned battle capturing 3 years of artistic perseverance. “This project is truly a labor of love. But in the end making music means more to us, and so we got back to it. We’ll never stop” said Christina Wood to ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK

With a Hollywood pedigree that saw their first single ‘Think’ included in the soundtrack of the 2014 Keanu Reeves action thriller ‘John Wick’ and their stark cover ‘99 Luftballons’ appearing in the 2017 Charlize Theron spy drama ‘Atomic Blonde’, album opener ‘Hollow’ is possibly their most immediate number since ‘Think’; throwing subtle house piano shapes, there is that divine haunting quality as can be expected from KALEIDA.

‘Generation’ exudes gothic soul with a touch of trip-hop and jazz inflections while with a sombre percussive drive, ‘Seagull Nun’ is eerily mesmerising with its recurring glitch adding an unexpected edge.

Collaborating with German producer Robot Koch, ‘Choices’ comes over like a modern folk song where a doomed romance is the theme and is a reminder that everyone has choices. Using synthetic and acoustic sounding basslines, ‘Hansaplast’ naturally possesses a looming Cold War tension with beautiful ivories tinkling in a foggy backdrop that recalls Mauerstadt Berlin.

The glorious ‘Stranger’ springs a surprise with 808 electro dance rhythms and a superb collage of staccato voice samples, punchy bass and great vocals, in particular a mantric chant that comes over almost prayer-like.

Elsewhere, the uplifting ‘Kilda’ could be CLANNAD if they had embraced hip-hop beats while the emotive ‘Endless Youth’ goes all deep and moody. A subtle backbone and heavy drone shapes ‘Hey Little Precious’ as “a dream we hold” before ending in an understated neo-acoustic manner with male harmonies on ‘Don´t Turn Me Out’ where KALEIDA collaborate with Oklahoma indie rock band OTHER LIVES.

A product of resilience, KALEIDA have got through their existential crisis and reinforced their sense of purpose. Producing their most varied and best body of work yet, ‘In Arms’ explores directions that could be considered opposites but at its core, the music remains angst-ridden yet hopeful. A real grower of a record, the emotive rush contained within gets increasingly satisfying on each listen. As Cicely Goulder says “It’s a constant dialogue of music and emotion.”

‘In Arms’ is released by Embassy One on 22 March 2024 in blue vinyl LP, black vinyl LP, CD and digital formats via https://lnk.to/KaleidaInArms

KALEIDA 2024 live dates include:

London Oslo (22 March), Prague Cross Club (23 March), Brno Kabinet Múz (24 March), Cologne Artheater (27 March), Berlin LARK (28 March), Hamburg Hääkken (29 March), Warsaw Chmury (30 March), Seattle High Dive (11 April), Los Angeles The Echo (12 April), San Francisco Brick & Mortar Music Hall (13 April), Brooklyn Elsewhere (20 April), Montreal Bar Le Ritz PDB (21 April)

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Text by Chi Ming Lai
Photos by Benjamin Hampson
18 March 2024

NIGHT CLUB Masochist

15 March 2024 / electricityclub

Bypassing the usual synthpop route, LA-based duo NIGHT CLUB have significantly expanded their audience by opening for the Maynard James Keenan-helmed alternative rock giants A PERFECT CIRCLE and PUSCIFER over the past few years and in 2023, goth rock icons THE CULT.

Emily Kavanaugh and Mark Brooks captured the enforced confinement of lockdown on 2020’s ‘Die Die Lullaby’ to produce their best album yet. But having delivered that wonderful 35 minutes of existential dread, 4 years later, the world is at war on several fronts, And with US citizens still seemingly not learning past lessons and wanting to STILL “make America great again” despite an attempted insurrection, ‘Masochist’ is a highly appropriate title for the new NIGHT CLUB album.

Emotions can be summed up by the inclusion of ‘The Lunatics (Have Taken Over the Asylum)’, a cover of the song by FUN BOY THREE. Written as a metaphor to the dangerous posturing games played by “The Cowboy” Ronald Reagan in 1981 during The Cold War, today an even crazier orange face from the screen is attempting a comeback followed by his flock of mindless sheep… NIGHT CLUB’s update for the 21st Century brings in the Las Vegas Mass Choir for the deep vocal hook but when Kavanaugh joins in several octaves higher with her characteristic feline delivery, an even more sinister resonance ensues that gets boosted over the tighter mechanical rhythm.

As with ‘Die Die Lullaby’, Mark Brooks has mixed the new album with Dave ‘Rave’ Ogilvie, a former member of SKINNY PUPPY known for his work with NINE INCH NAILS and Marilyn Manson. But crucially, Ogilvie also mixed Carly Rae Jepsen’s 2011 worldwide smash hit ‘Call Me Maybe’, attaining that sonic balance between dark underground electronics and mainstream pop which characterises the “Britney fronting NINE INCH NAILS” approach of NIGHT CLUB.

Featuring their champion Maynard James Keenan, opener ‘Gone’ imagines an electronic MUSE fronted by Britney Spears with its spikey arpeggios and a mighty range of multi-layered vocals to produce something of an epic drama. With the album title taken from its lyrics, ‘Barbwire Kiss’ doesn’t veer away too much from the archetypical NIGHT CLUB formula as a sister song to ‘Pray’ from ‘Requiem for Romance’ and equally sinister, but ‘Another Side of You’ surprises with some latent stripped down gothic funk.

With the world seeming to be one giant ‘Crime Scene’, its synth metal chorus reminiscent is what Britney would sound like after binge watching ‘Wednesday’ while ‘Let’s Play Revenge!’ develops on the NIGHT CLUB lyrical template to “Keep your friends close and your enemies in your songs”!

The superb ‘Pretty Girls Do Ugly Things’ does ‘Mean Girls – The Musical’ and grooves yet maintains a wonderful dark cynicism! Britney Spears should cover it! No! Britney Spears WILL cover it! ‘Fatal Crush’ takes a leaf out of Aussie pop princess Kylie Minogue by offering NIGHT CLUB’s own take on ‘Can’t Get You Out Of My Head’ mashed-up with ‘Cruel Devotion’ from 2014’s ‘Black Leather Heart’ EP while ‘Everybody Knows’ is a close cousin also driven by pulsing disco octave basslines.

The closer ‘Black December’ is an unexpected traditional rock ballad that contains organ and guitar textures! But elements of ROXY MUSIC’s ‘Song For Europe’ also creep in, highlighting NIGHT CLUB’s affinity with music from across the Atlantic… yes Britney Spears was from Mississippi but her imperial phase was written and produced by Swedes!

50% of ‘Masochist’ retains what would be considered the classic NIGHT CLUB sound but the other 50% explores some deviations which could point to a number interesting possible pop futures.

An immediate and highly enjoyable album, ‘Masochist’ pulls the not very easy trick of keeping established fans satisfied while also offering something different but connected to the path.

‘Masochist’ is released by Gato Blanco as a CD, red or clear vinyl LP and download, available from http://nightclubband.com/

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Text by Chi Ming Lai
15 March 2024

DINA SUMMER Hide & Seek EP

21 February 2024 / electricityclub

A product of Berlin, DINA SUMMER is the collaborative project comprising of Greco-German technodisco couple Dina Pascal and Max Brudi aka LOCAL SUICIDE and Nu-disco exponent Jakob Häglsperger, better known by his frozen dessert flavoured alias of KALIPO.

Blending new wave, synthpop, dark disco and techno, DINA SUMMER opened their account with the excellent single pairing of ‘Who Am I’ and ‘Fortune Teller’. Their new EP ‘Hide & Seek’ embraces synth with a cutting Mittel Europa edge following their more Italo flavoured 2022 long player ‘Rimini’. But around this time, although not featuring on the album, they covered THE FLIRTS’ Booby O produced disco classic ‘Passion’ and FRONT 242’s EBM favourite ‘Headhunter’ as free downloads to show how across the spectrum their musical tastes lay.

With an epic gothic intro, “the clock is ticking” with live sounding drum fills and frenetic blips as ‘Unter Strom’ comes shaped with stabbing synth interventions and a feminine Anglo-Germanic vocal presence for an ecstatic opening. The uptempo rhythmic thrust of ‘Hide & Seek’ offers tension and excitement using real bass guitar and a much more snarly vocal delivery in amongst all the throbbing electronics although its sparkles in a manner that puts all the synthwavers to shame with its elicit spirit. Meanwhile its ‘Club Edit’ matts the shine and takes things deeper and darker at a more steadfast past, drawing sonic parallels to another Berlin-based act NNHMN.

Photo by Petra Ruehle

Even faster but interestingly sans hi-hats is ‘All Or Nothing’; using a high energy formula with deep synthetic choirs and pitch swoops for the required burst of gloom, it is punctuated by feisty and assertive spoken words declaring “I won’t be caged”. Then with the minimal structure of a solid propulsive beat and spacious layers of electronics before a big bang of hypnotically repeating basslines, ‘Excess’ is sexy and sweaty with talk of “high leather boots”, its nonchalant narration providing an alluring incentive to dance and be corrupted.

This is an excellent EP that combines light and shade in a manner that is perfect for the dancefloor or a home soundbar. If you’ve ever wondered what happened to good electronic dance music with a grittier impassioned outlook, well it’s alive and well, and it’s right here…

‘Hide & Seek’ is released by Iptamenos Discos on 23 February 2024, available as a 12” vinyl EP or download via https://iptamenosdiscos.com/dina-summer-hide-seek-idi018/

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Text by Chi Ming Lai
21st February 2024

ZANIAS Ecdysis

14 February 2024 / electricityclub

Coming just one year after ‘Chrysalis’, ZANIAS returns with an adventurous new album called ‘Ecdysis’.

The solo vehicle of Alison Lewis who first came into public view as a member of acclaimed dark synth duo LINEA ASPERA, as the album title suggests, the music is the shedding an outer cuticular layer into a new self. Its origins emerged from the same sessions as the more song based material on 2023’s ‘Chrysalis’.

“I call it music from the same planet, just slightly different dimensions”, ZANIAS said to ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK, “I made them with many of the same plugins and techniques, just took ‘Ecdysis’ a little further beyond the usual sound structures. I was producing so much music at the time, I wasn’t sure if it would be one long album or two, and then the tracks naturally divided themselves into two camps: the songs with words and the more abstract pieces with no words.”

Brooding and lyric-less, ‘Earthborn’ sets the scene with its other worldly voice texturing and manipulation in tongues. “I was thinking a lot about human evolution and prehistory” Lewis remembered, “I think ‘Earthborn’ was a bit of a soundtrack to how we arrived where we are today. Full of heavy emotion and conflict – hence the sounds of swords and ancient battles”.

Proceedings continue at a moodier tempo on the mantric ‘Mara’ which is heavily influenced by the abstract glossolalia of Lisa Gerrard. Upping to much more frantic pace, ‘Duneskipper’ brings the vocal pitch shifts into a wider deeper spectrum, enhancing the cinematic tension.

The vocal textures are pitched higher and vibratoed to a gentle pulse on the atmospheric Fourth World resonating ‘Acacia’ while the trance-laden ‘Bloodwood’ possesses an eerie quality that absorbs the senses in its cacophony of sound.

Referring to a small bilateral neuronal structure in the brain of vertebrates that can act as a critical node in chronic stress-related anxiety, ‘Habenula’ is like an angel calling to respond and calm while much more ominous, ‘Swim’ evokes slightly more unsettling resonances although ultimately it is escapist.

Bubbly sequences and prominent but minimal beats shape the ‘Ecdysis’ title piece to provide a brighter optimistic closer; embracing a wonderfully mysterious quality, there are hopeful sparkles amongst the strident rhythms.

Is this an instrumental record? Only in the sense of not being conventional songs but Alison Lewis has created an ecstatic language which its creator has said is “Best enjoyed on headphones in total darkness”. Constructed in a whirlwind during a period of adversity, the soothing quality of ‘Ecdysis’ is the sound of things that help make you feel ok when things aren’t ok…

‘Ecdysis’ is released on 16 February 2024 via Fleisch Records (worldwide) and Metropolis Records (North America), available in limited edition blue / white coloured vinyl LP variations, CD and digital formats direct from https://zanias.bandcamp.com/album/ecdysis

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Text by Chi Ming Lai
Photos by Tim Darin
14th February 2024