Samantha Newark is best known for her voice-over animation work for the cult classic cartoon series ‘Jem & The Holograms’. It told the story of a record company owner Jerrica Benton and her singing alter-ego Jem’s adventures in the music industry.
Although ‘Jem & The Holograms’ ended in 1988 after three seasons, the show became one of the main influences of Texan bionic bubblepunk duo HYPERBUBBLE. The married couple of Jess and Jeff DeCuir have over a series of albums and EPs since 2004 explored instrumental synth, electro country and western, pop, cover versions and soundtracks.
But for their remix of Samantha Newark’s ‘Hologram’, it is as if an artistic circle has been completed. While ‘Hologram’ originally came out as a rock ballad with piano and guitar in 2017, HYPERBUBBLE reworked the song using just the vocal stem in their own uptempo avant disco style while complimenting her superbly rousing vocal.
Although the magenta lit lyric video could be anything from the synthwave community over the past 10 years, the digital modelling is of a very high standard and suits HYPERBUBBLE’s take on ‘Hologram’ without selling its soul to Ryan Gosling.
Having moved to Nashville and released her self-titled debut album in 2008, Samantha Newark’s new album of remixes ‘Hologram 2.0’ presents a dance music version of the original ‘Hologram’ album which began as a concept album about Jem,
A love letter to the many Jem fans, Samantha Newark said “Get ready for a non-stop dance music party that reimagines the original ‘Hologram’ album into a truly outrageous dance floor of glitter and gold extravaganza”.
After JOON and BARK BARK DISCO from Malta along with DLINA VOLNY from Belarus, Italians Do It Better venture further east across Europe to Russia for its next long playing adventure.
Russian duo LOVE OBJECT first appeared on the 2020 compilation ‘After Dark 3’ with ‘Holodnoe Solnce’ while they also appeared on their label’s self-titled in-house collection of Madonna covers with a deadpan mechanical take on ‘Frozen’.
Now as 2021 concludes, they have their debut album ‘New Flesh’. Comprising of singer / DJ Dasha Utochka and producer Danya Mu, LOVE OBJECT are about mind and control, producing electronic noir pop with a stark dancefloor friendly backbone.
An erotic overtone lingers over LOVE OBJECT, perhaps unsurprising when it is learnt that Utochka is a co-founder of a magazine entitled ‘Areola’ whose mission statement is “To help people become more liberated and freethinking!”. With an appealing allure, opening song ‘The Kill’ explores what a funkier ‘Music For The Masses’ era DEPECHE MODE might have sounded like fronted by a robotised Russian goth girl.
Appropriately, a song actually called ‘Robot’ is more KRAFTWERK-like with a vocodered presence and a colder machine mood but the catchy electroclash of ‘Abyss’ thumps wildly as its close cousin ‘Animals’ utilises octave shifts at the bottom end to recall LADYTRON.
The doomer hip-hop vibe of ‘Virus’ is rather on point and features a harsh rap of truths that comes over apocalyptic while without raising a smile, ‘Circus’ is supercharged industrial pop but still embroiled in mystery.
‘Object of Desire’ (which was the duo’s original name in Russian) deviates rhythmically into looser stuttering techno and a deep narration from Mu before Utochka takes over. Meanwhile, ‘No Smiling’ is allowed as a sombre bass sequence that could be DAF takes hold with the enigmatic vocal akin to Miss Kittin reading Cyrillic script.
Closing with the frantic ‘Transparent Woman’, this speedy slice of tech-pop burlesque is laced with an unsettling vocal presence in a contrast of ghostly and almost sweet treated deliveries. With percolating percussive metallics, overall it musically recalls Ferry Corsten in his full SYSTEM F pomp.
Like midnight undressing, ‘New Flesh’ is sinister dance music for after dark and embroiled a twisted detachment that will appeal to those who miss the gritty synthcore hedonism led by the likes of FISCHERSPOONER and TIGA just over two decades ago.
‘New Flesh’ is released by Italians Do It Better on 3rd December 2021 via the usual online platforms
Matthieu Roche is the enigmatic Parisian behind FRAGRANCE.
A purveyor of dreamy synthpop in the vein of PET SHOP BOYS, he released his debut EP as FRAGRANCE. in 2017 before presenting his first full length release ‘Now That I’m Real’ in 2019 on Synth Religion. From it, ‘So Typical’ was a particular highlight while there were also collaborations with Maya Postepski of AUSTRA, TR/ST and PRINCESS CENTURY fame plus Hélène de Thoury, best known for her solo project HANTE. and as a member of MINUIT MACHINE. Singing primarily in English and often leaving vocals en Français to his female collaborations, Roche exudes a classic elegance, musically recalling TR/ST but using a far less polarising singing style than that of Robert Alfons.
As a result, those who might be put off vocally by TR/ST might find FRAGRANCE. much more accessible. A modest man, Roche lets his music do the talking and with his second FRAGRANCE. album ‘Salt Water’, he continues his production partnership with Sophia Hamadi from the French duo OPALE, while a new artistic relationship comes in the shape of New York-based Venezuelan singer and photographer Lulannie.
Developing on the mood and dance template of its predecessor, ‘Salt Water’ opens with the boisterous ‘Forevermore’ where body mechanics sit within the trancey backdrop. The squelchy French house of ‘Attiré Par Le Chaos’ is suitably vibrant and hypnotic while dreamy yet danceable, the wonderful electro-disco of ‘Covered In Gold’ comes over like a Gallic PET SHOP BOYS, smoothed by Merlot and additional ethereal voices from Sophia Hamadi.
While ‘Twisted Way’ doesn’t quite hit the heights of what came before, it is enjoyable in a drifting atmospheric kind of way, but returning to something rhythmically harder, the arpeggio-laden ‘Tears’ offers a tone of resignation yet sparkles.
The energetic ‘Bind Me Up With Your Flesh’ throws in some sinister shade to the spacey club friendly vibes but with a beautiful piano intro, ‘The Cure’ eases itself in before reverberant synthbass and metronomic beats kick in to do what FRAGRANCE. do best with the alluring middle eight prose from Lulannie only adding to the pleasure.
‘Love Bites’ bubbles as Roche sings of something “dead in the water” as it rings with a number of understated electronic hooks, while the propulsive ‘Crisis’ brings a dark anxiety into proceedings although things are never too intense or doom laden, always giving hope to a possible solution. ‘A Million Replays’ ends ‘Salt Water’ with a contemplative night drive soundtrack building into a percussive coda and then ocean waves in a reflection of the album title.
Exquisite and melodic, ‘Salt Water’ utilises prominent rhythms that are never overbearing. Swathed in an absorbing melancholy for a superbly produced collection of appealing music, its ten tracks sit as comfortably at home as they do on the dancefloor, not an easy feat to pull off. Mais oui!
Long distance relationships are never the easiest, even at the best of times.
But the new KID MOXIE single ‘Better Than Electric’ encapsulates the melancholically longing and the ultimate joy with an arrangement like the Roy Orbison song ‘A Love So Beautiful’ (itself based on Puccini’s ‘Nessun Dorma’) reimagined for ‘Twin Peaks’ soundtrack.
Fittingly written by Elena Charbila as a remote collaboration with James Chapman of MAPS who also provides chorus harmonies, the lyrics reflect on a distance that keeps two lovers apart. Charbila said “Is there anything more powerful than Electricity? It has the power to instantly connect things and people and it is a force so powerful yet it’s something you don’t see, you only feel it.”
Directed by Joe Rubinstein and embroiled in an exquisite sexual tension, the ‘Better Than Electric’ video stars Charbila and Russian dancer Olka Sokolova. “This is a very emotionally raw and honest love song and video, about longing for someone who is far away” added Charbila, “the video, this otherworldly girl and I become one. We improvised a lot of the movement and choreography which really worked in terms of producing a very natural and real connection between us.”
“Tonight this city breathes with me, she makes me dream big” Charbila sings in a gorgeously haunting soprano, before declaring with love that “you and I, are better than electric”. After all, electricity cannot exist unless there is a connection.
Following up the previous KID MOXIE single, a cover of ALPHAVILLE’s ‘Big In Japan’ and the dance flavoured ‘Love & Unity’ EP with LUXXURY, ‘Better Than Electric’ comes from the new KID MOXIE album out in 2022.
‘Better Than Electric’ is released by Pasadena Records and available via the usual digital platforms
NATION OF LANGUAGE released their debut album ‘Introduction, Presence’ in Spring 2020 just as the worldwide pandemic took hold.
Starting out as a post-punk act, lead singer and songwriter Ian Devaney became interested in using synths after hearing OMD’s ‘Electricity’ in his father’s car for the first time in years. Also featuring his wife Aidan Noell on keyboards and bassist Michael Sui-Poi, the Brooklyn-based trio adopted a “beginner’s mind” to electronic pop with songs such as ‘On Division St’ and ‘Friend Machine’ capturing a sharp synthy spirit alongside a notion of anguish.
A following standalone single ‘Deliver Me From Wondering Why’ explored the more experimental phase of OMD, but issued as a trailer for their appropriately titled second album ‘A Way Forward’, the catchy Motorik drive of ‘This Fractured Mind’ breathed new life into its retrospective references with sprightly synth tones and a danceable ethereal shudder. Dealing with the spectre of unrealised dreams and jealousy, any inferiority complex was countered with a hopeful and optimistic acceptance to move on.
That frantic Motorik beat reappears a few more times during ‘A Way Forward’, with a more direct NEU! approach on ‘Across That Fine Line’ using textural guitar with occasional pulses of synth before a chorus that bursts into an anxious post-punk thrash.
But on several occasions, NATION OF LANGUAGE eschew prominent percussion as on the album opener ‘In Manhattan’ which utilises a pulsing sequenced backdrop that recalls MIRRORS ‘Fear Of Drowning’, reflecting the tense anxieties of young manhood. Meanwhile, the sparse arpeggios of the haunting ‘Former Self’ conjure the feel of a lost East European folk song reimagined with an electronic treatment, although this perhaps is not surprising as it was composed on a nylon string guitar.
With the tick of a clock, ‘They’re Beckoning’ looks as though it will follow a similar route with minimal sweeping synths but a minute and a half in, it kicks with thumping electronic drums, sparking trancey blips and moody bass guitar to recall NEW ORDER like ‘Your Silent Face’ meeting ‘Temptation’ for an infectious brooding closer.
The influence of early OMD makes its presence felt on the atmospheric ‘Wounds of Love’ while the forlorn longing of ‘Miranda’ presents a slow waltz and a closing ivory segment that sounds as if it is about to morph into ‘Souvenir’. Meanwhile, like a drifting train ride, ‘A Word & A Wave’ throws in fits of white noise à la ‘Almost’ and DEPECHE MODE’s ‘Any Second Now’.
But exuding a KRAFTWERK inspired octave shifting template, ‘The Grey Commute’ ponders the daily routine of many with backing that could be MIRRORS with more guitar. And although it is less immediate the some of the other tracks, it carries depth and echoes the John Foxx fronted ULTRAVOX! with ‘Hiroshima Mon Amour’ in its hypnotic mechanised rhythms.
‘Whatever You Want’ labours a little but overall, ‘A Way Forward’ does as its title suggests. Showing growth from the seed planted during ‘Introduction, Presence’, there is potential for even more and ‘A Way Forward’ confidently showcases to some of the more hipster factions in the music world that synths and drum machines are not dirty words and can be applied with a post-punk influence to an independent pop sound.
Dancing while a little down can be uplifting and the shifting emotions of ‘A Way Forward’ show that while it’s ok to not be ok, it’s also ok to take time to escape as well.
Copenhagen Ideal Bar (15th January), Stockholm Obaren (16th January), Oslo Bla (17th January), Berlin Kantine Am Berghain (19th January), Zurich Kater (20th January), Barcelona Laut (22nd January), Madrid Sala El Sol (23rd January), Paris Supersonic (25th January), Leeds Hyde Park Book Club (27th January), Glasgow Broadcast (28th January), Dublin Grand Social (29th January), Manchester YES Pink Room (30th January), London Lafayette (31st January)
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