Category: Reviews (Page 36 of 199)

RATIONAL YOUTH Wavelength EP

21 January 2022 / electricityclub

The ‘Wavelength’ EP celebrates 40 years of RATIONAL YOUTH.

Founded in Montréal by Tracy Howe and Bill Vorn, along with PSYCHE and MEN WITHOUT HATS, RATIONAL YOUTH were trailblazers for electronic music in Canada. Joined by Kevin Komoda, they opened for OMD and released their debut album ‘Cold War Night Life’ in 1982. Tracy Howe remains the main man of RATIONAL YOUTH with his wife Gaenor now in the line-up. The ‘Future Past Tense’ EP was released in 2016 and showcased ‘This Side Of The Border’ which captured the anxieties of the world’s current socio-political climate.

With the opening song on ‘Wavelength’, RATIONAL YOUTH’s observational ethos is poignantly relevant again with an epic political statement. ‘Kepler 48’ is a brand new composition that captures Tracy Howe’s boxed anger while Gaenor’s voice counterpoints with offers of hope over a dark backdrop of punchy synth that closes with a dropping crescendo.

The remaining tracks on ‘Wavelength’ are new recordings of three songs from the 1983 self-titled EP for Capitol Records after Bill Vorn departed; that fragmentation of RATIONAL YOUTH saw bassist Denis Duran and drummer Angel Calvo brought into the fold. Overshadowed by the mighty ‘Holiday In Bangkok’ at the time, those songs are realised with a purer electronic vision on Wavelength’ while also making them more widely available for the first time in nearly four decades.

‘Latin Lovers’ is a case in point, presented with a more pronounced Italo flavoured treatment over its 1983 post-punk funk, with the catchy timpani laden backing given a new twist with Gaenor opening on lead before her husband joins in for a duet.

‘The Man In Grey’ has all that angsty Cold War claustrophobia brought into the 21st Century but with another feminine counterpoint and while those chilling tensions are sadly relevant again, the swirly synth solo in the middle eight remains a delight.

Much speedier with frantic beats and sparkling arpeggios, ‘In Your Eyes’ recalls fellow Canadians MEN WITHOUT HATS while Tracy Howe lets rip with his enjoyable Bob Geldof mannerisms. These reworkings are different enough to appeal to RATIONAL YOUTH enthusiasts but with the arrangements essentially kept intact, the essence of the originals retain the character of their initial appeal.

‘Wavelength’ is a worthy body of work pertinent to the present while also highlighting the “environmental destruction for profit” ethos of the giant corporations and their space travelling billionaire owners. Yes, ‘Don’t Look Up’ really is becoming a closer reality and RATIONAL YOUTH are again on the ‘Wavelength’ of the concerned world citizen.

‘Wavelength’ is released by Rational Music Group and available on the usual online platforms inlcuding https://rationalyouth.bandcamp.com/album/wavelength

https://open.spotify.com/album/5u1el3uoUDcaiSLTjhSQwV

Text by Chi Ming Lai
Photo by Susana Meza
21st January 2022

POLYCHRON+ She’s Always Been There

19 January 2022 / electricityclub

POLYCHRON+ is the new electro-acoustic project by veteran Italian producer Gabriele Gai with songwriter, musician and vocalist Aurelio Menichi.

To say their debut album ‘She’s Always Been There’ is something a bit different and unusual would be an understatement.

Not only does it mix electronically derived Mediterranean dance music with Tuscan folk and classical forms, it has an impressive cast of guests including Anna Domino, Blaine L. Reininger and Luc Van Lieshout from TUXEDOMOON.

It is a cultured and sophisticated album that includes the synthetic torch cabaret of ‘Alaska Drive’ sung by NicoNote and the arty jazz-inflected Italo disco of ‘Twist The Knife’ featuring crooner Alex Spalck and Luc Van Lieshout on trumpet. Standing next to them is the brilliantly understated house of ‘Lighter Than The Blue’ which sees Blaine L. Reininger not only offer his pronounced Leonard Cohen-esque baritone but also bring a virtuoso violin performance to the party.

‘Yeh-Teh’ springs a surprise with some enjoyable avant garde rapping and a snarling sample from a BBC interview with John Lydon declares “I want everything in life to be transparent… let us as human beings determine our own journey in life!”

What is contained on ‘She’s Always Been There’ is nothing but diverse, with melancholic piano assisted instrumentals like ‘Morbid Love’ and the delicate Anna Domino voiced flutey guitar ballad ‘Pocketknife’ figuring. Meanwhile ‘Gum, Le Blue Jar’ could be a reggaefied YELLO while a cover of Italian post-punk band GAZNEVADA’s ‘Tij-U-Wan’ throws in spikey rock and the influence of DEVO halfway through!

Seeded by life, disappointments and grief with cinematic reference points to the Les Disques Du Crepuscule and Crammed Records catalogue as well as Italian New Wave, ‘She’s Always Been There’ will appeal to fans of the TUXEDOMOON axis with its refined electronic base embellished by a variety of traditional instrumentation.

‘She’s Always Been There’ is released in CD and digital formats by Totem Taboo and distributed by Materiali Sonori

https://www.facebook.com/polychronplus/

https://open.spotify.com/album/4FzDi2KbpvajkEmDZohmlL

Text by Chi Ming Lai
19th January 2022

BOY HARSHER The Runner

17 January 2022 / electricityclub

With the challenges of the past two years, it is perhaps unsurprising with the brooding menacing aura omnipresent in their music that BOY HARSHER have made a short horror movie and soundtrack.

Entitled ‘The Runner’ and written, produced and directed by the duo, it is a classic slasher attached to a meta-style documentary about the BOY HARSHER recording process, so think ‘Scream’ or ‘Fight Club’ but with a music studio. The film will premiere on the horror streaming platform Shudder on January 16th with screening events planned across the globe.

The duo Augustus Muller and Jae Matthews see this project as an artistic exorcism rather than their fifth album. The chaos and uncertainty of the times provided the mood, but Matthews was also diagnosed with multiple sclerosis with added anxieties closer to home. This provided inspiration for a sinister character, a woman running through the woods.

The soundtrack stands up as an album in its own right and is their most diverse collection yet, featuring their usual dark and danceable electronic pop with some special guests and alongside eerie instrumentals.

Opening track ‘Tower’ offers a slow gothic presence with an impending doom though Jae Matthews’ distraught vocals although this is offset as often or not with many BOY HARSHER tunes by Augustus Muller’s keyed brightness alongside the sombre bass and fierce percussive attack, combining desire with destruction. ‘Give Me A Reason’ is classic BOY HARSHER and could be from any of the more recent albums, dark but melodic and hooky,

But ‘Autonomy’ featuring Cooper B Handy from the band LUCY. The track is a surprise, not just vocally but when the pulsing sequences and optimistic synthetic string tones kick in alongside the simulated Hooky bass, it is more reminiscent of NEW ORDER after they ditched the raincoats and started wearing shorts!

By contrast with its foreboding rhythmic mantra, ‘The Ride Home’ is far gloomier and more expected for a horror soundtrack. Following on, ‘Escape’ is a midtempo song captures a nocturnal tension that sees Matthews declaring “What’s done is done, my old friend” with something of a fatalistic density having already optimistically suggested “Maybe, we can escape?”.

Sung in Spanish and English, ‘Machina’ with Ms. BOAN is aimed at the dancefloor, recalling the Latino electronic disco of Bobby Orlando, particularly PET SHOP BOYS ‘A Man Could Get Arrested’ with the vocal interplay between the vocodered phrases and Mariana Saldaña being particularly seductive

The wholly instrumental ‘Untitled (Piano)’ sees BOY HARSHER go ambient and it works brilliantly while ‘I Understand’ is cut from a similar cloth but with the addition of a resigned and heartbroken Matthews cocooned in a box for a disturbing claustrophobic effect.

A cathartic collection, the duo said on their social media that “BOY HARSHER fans are the clear waves that keep us afloat”; while the soundtrack of ‘The Runner’ not a traditional album in the vein of ‘Careful’, they will not be disappointed.

The official soundtrack of ‘The Runner’ is released on 21st January 2022 via Nude Club / City Slang in various formats, pre-order available direct from https://boyharsher.bandcamp.com/album/the-runner-original-soundtrack

Information on independent screenings and streaming at https://therunner.film

https://boyharsher.com/

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Text by Chi Ming Lai
17th January 2022

THE WEEKND Less Than Zero

15 January 2022 / electricityclub

After ‘Blinding Lights’ and ‘Save Your Tears’, THE WEEKND have done it again and reminded the mainstream of the emotive beauty that can come from classic synthpop with ‘Less Than Zero’.

‘Less Than Zero’ has been co-produced and co-written by Swedes Max Martin and Oscar Holter; the ubiquitous Martin is the man behind hits by Taylor Swift, Katy Perry and Britney Spears but Holter was formally a member of industrial act NECRO FACILITY. Studio hands from a darker electronic background getting involved in pop is not unusual with Dave “Rave” Olgilvie from SKINNY PUPPY having helmed the final mixes of Carly Rae Jepsen.

Taken off the new album ‘Dawn FM’, ‘Less Than Zero’ itself sounds not unlike Michael Jackson produced by Tony Mansfield. The cross of catchy hooks, glorious counter-melodies and acoustic strums are reminiscent of Mansfield’s own combo NEW MUSIK who had UK hits with ‘Living By Numbers’, ‘This World Of Water’ and ‘Sanctuary’ in 1980; Tony Mansfield himself later went on to produce most of A-HA’s debut album ‘Hunting High & Low’.

The lush tones of ‘Less Than Zero’ even recall Cliff Richard’s appealing Alan Tarney produced synth period and of course, Tarney also went on to work with A-HA on a number of their biggest hits including ‘Take On Me’, ‘The Sun Always Shines On TV’, ‘Cry Wolf’ and ‘Stay On These Roads’.

Over pop history, mainstream acts going through a period of synthpop or at least doing a synth-driven song or two has been a rock ‘n’ roll rite of passage. While the likes of Cliff Richard, Robert Palmer, Paul McCartney, Rod Stewart, Leonard Cohen and even Neil Young have entered the mysterious world of electronics in the past, with the assistance of that renowned Nordic melancholy and folk tradition, Abel Tesfaye appears to be enjoying his synthpop adventures as THE WEEKND more than most.

In ‘Less Than Zero’, he has created more magnificent earworm magic that harks back to the tradition of A-HA and others who came before them. No kids, the synth was not invented by Ryan Gosling in 2011 for the film ‘Drive’ ?

‘Less Than Zero’ is from the album ‘Dawn FM’ released by XO / Republic Records

https://www.theweeknd.com

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Text by Chi Ming Lai
15th January 2022

КЛЕТ 1984? No!

2 January 2022 / electricityclub

КЛЕТ is a music project of Bohemian-born composer and producer Michal Trávníček.

His debut album ‘Alconaut’ was undoubtedly the best instrumental synth release of 2021 and primarily celebrated the Soviet space programme with its impressive series of firsts, while also reflecting on how after the collapse of the union, in the fallout of the freedom now available with capitalism, life was not rosy for all. Less than half a year after the release of ‘Alconaut’ comes a musical appendix ‘1984? No!’. КЛЕТ rather poignantly dedicates to his new long player to “any individual mind that feels oppressed. My heart goes out to you!”

Thematically facing that past brave new world with relevance to today’s international political landscape, while 1984? No!’ could be considered a natural progression, opening track ‘Kaif’ displays a more uptempo and funkier template than was heard on ‘Alconaut’. Paying tribute to his birthplace, ‘Bohemia’ is also seeded from ‘Alconaut’ if less spacey. But ‘Piramida’ re-explores those atmospheres with an electro beat groove while ‘Hollywood Moon Landing’ is much floatier.

In honour of the first modular space station, the appropriately weightless ‘Mir’ provides another Sovietwave metaphor for the secrecy of the USSR progressing to more open international collaboration. ‘Horizon’ is more percussive and throws in tabla textures but while ‘Chukotka’ drifts along, ‘Dystopia’ comes over more threatening with chunky synthbass pulses if retaining atmospheric qualities.

Celebrating the first spacecraft to land successfully on the moon and return data, the celestial synthwave of ‘Luna 9’ wouldn’t have sounded out of place on ‘Alconaut’ while ‘Svoboda’ provides a pretty highlight. More stark and with partial distortion but remaining melodic is ‘Stolen Future’, continuing КЛЕТ’s assertion that the fall of The Iron Curtain was not necessarily a positive thing for some citizens in the former Eastern Bloc.

Using harp-like approximations and a steadfast metronomic beat, ‘Chillout’ does what it says on the tin before ‘Propyat’ closes the album with a beautiful sustained piano work that is embellished by the odd choral effect.

The impressive ‘Alconaut’ was always going to be a hard act to follow and in comparison, ‘1984? No!’ does come over as less immediate. The celebration and sadness of its predecessor is also felt on this worthwhile follow-up, even though it is pointing in a more ‘Don’t Look Up’ direction.

‘1984? No!’ is available on the usual online platforms including https://claat.bandcamp.com/

https://twitter.com/aestheticKLET

https://www.instagram.com/kletwave/

https://soundcloud.com/aestheticclaat

https://open.spotify.com/album/6ilnqjtkvEXLQ7I8US4Qbs

Text by Chi Ming Lai
4th January 2022