Category Archives: SynthPop
Jupiter’s début album
OK, so we’ve had French ElectroPop duo Jupiter’s début album in our possession for a few weeks now, but have been held back from reviewing it due to, obviously, them wanting the ‘One O Six’ single pushed first. It’s been an agonising few weeks, as we’ve been dying to tell people how good the album really is. But hey, we’ve been waiting for it for three years, so what’s another couple of weeks.
And was the wait worth it? Hell yeah it was. Jupiter have been a staple on the lips of ElectroPop fans for a few years now, right from the early Anoraak reMix and their standout reMix of CHEW LiPS’ ‘Salt Air’, alongside their début ‘Starlighter’ single, they crashed onto the Electro scene and left us all eagerly awaiting a full length record. Last years ‘Saké’ teased us that things were starting to move faster toward the goal and now here we are, ‘Juicy Lucy’, Jupiter’s début album will be released next month, and it’s going to be the soundtrack to your summer.
The LP kicks off with the current single ‘One O Six’, Jupiter’s tribute the their favourite synth, which sets up the album perfectly with it’s jumping Funk bass, big retro synth stabs and quirky vocals, it’s a great choice for a single and a great primer to Jupiter’s sound. Amélie De Bosredon and Quarles Baseden are the only double act I know that can so seamlessly merge traditional SynthPop, Indie-Electro and ‘’70’s Funk and Disco. Sure, lots of artists draw from this pool of influenced but who other than Jupiter can have and Indie guitar lick, shiny Disco synths from space and a SynthPop lead line all working in harmony to this extent. The album flip from track to track, highlighting a different side to Jupiter’s sound with each new tune. From the Indie stylings of ‘Set The Course Of The Nile’ and ‘La Dynamo’ to the pure Disco sounds of ‘Elliot Uppercut’ and the title track ‘Juicy Lucy (Needs A Boogieman)’ and the deep Electro-House of ‘St. Petersborg’, Jupiter’s summer, good times, vibe is layered thickly over everything., and it’s that Jupirterness that makes the album so great. Amongst the retro Funk, the sweet synth riffs and the Vocoders is this energy, this life best exemplified by Amélie’s magical-pixie-dream-girl vocals and the album’s overarching bouncyness that is so unique to these two. ‘Juicy Lucy’ is a masterpiece of DiscoPop, complexly layered, intricate, electronic music that end up being simplistically catchy, and easily a contender for the album of the year. Buy this record and your summer will belong to Jupiter.
♫ Jupiter – One O Six
♫ Jupiter – Saké
♫ Jupiter – Starlighter
Jupiter’s début album ‘Juicy Lucy’ is released 5th June.
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Parallels new EP
This week Toronto’s greatest SynthPop export Parallels, released their new EP, Time Will Crawl, as a pre-cursor to the release of their new album ‘XII’. We already checked out the new track ‘Moonlight Desires’, a cover of Canadian artist Gowen. Time for a peak at the rest of the EP.
‘Time Will Tell’, the lead track is am amazing slice of what ElectroPop that rest heavily on Italo roots. Like the best, epic, European ItaloPop in the mid ‘80’s, ‘Time Will Crawl’ flows along on bouncing digital bass and rich synth chords with Holly Dodson’s vocals proving to be both dramatic and uplifting, sweeping across the track taking it to new heights. A wash of stings over the Disco groove just makes it perfect. ‘Time Will Crawl’ really is a stunning track, probably the best thing I have heard from Parallels since ‘Ultralight’, and seeing as how I have loved everything they’ve done that’s really saying something. The final track on the EP is ‘Ritual Dancer’ is unmistakable Parallels and works the contrast between Holly’s sweet vocals and a hard beat and bassline to create a track that is both catchy and edgy. No-one does analog sounding ElectroPop like Parallels, they’ve been away far too long.
♫ Parallels – Time Will Crawl
♫ Parallels – Ritual Dancer
‘Time Will Crawl’ is out now, ‘XII’ is due out 26th June.
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Queen Of Hearts & Mark Reeder
When electronic music legend and all round nice guy Mark Reeder asked me to hook him up with the future ruler of all things ElectroPop, Queen Of Hearts, I was like ”hell yeah!, that can only end well”. A man who has been instrumental in shaping electronic and dance music spanning four decades from Manchester to Berlin and a woman with a passion for electronic Pop music and a voice that could melt stone. What more can you ask for, really?
‘Mark Reeder’s Electrically Excited reMix’ of Queen Of Hearts new single ‘Neon’ is a pulsating, synthetic, floorfiller that marries Reeder’s trademark Berlin TechPop with The Queen’s husky delivery. It’s actually quite interesting to hear Queen If Hearts set amongst the cold robotic arpeggios and moody pads of Berlin Techno and Reeder perfectly finds the balance between the two, creating something robotic, but with a soul. Which, considering forthcoming double A-side the single is rife with BladeRunner references (whether accidental or not) is a pretty fitting sound. There’s a dark machine beauty to the track, and an epic cinematic quality which makes the whopping seven minutes feel like a flowing musical narrative. This is the hopefulness on rain soaked, neon lit, dystopian city streets.
♫ Queen Of Hearts – Neon (Mark Reeder’s Electrically Excited reMix)
Queen Of Heart’s ‘Neon’/’Tears In The Rain’ single is out 14th May, out now is ‘electronic rumors Volume 1’ on which she features.
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Saint Etienne’s new single
UK ElectroPop legends Saint Etienne are gearing up for the release of their brand new album, ‘Words And Music By Saint Etienne’, next month. Ahead of which ‘I’ve Got Your Music’ follows ‘Tonight’ as the second single taken from the record.
‘I’ve Got Your Music’ seems to follow both musically and thematically from ‘Tonight’, and with a title like ‘Words And Music’ I would hazard a guess that the album will be about Pop music, and songs in general, and their power to capture a moment. As Bob Stanley says “the album is about believing in music, living your life by its rules”, The single is a lovely slice of classic SynthPop, but we would expect no less from Saint Etienne. Produced with Xenomania’s Tim Powell, it’s a effervescent, upbeat tune that bodes well for the album.
♫ Saint Etienne – I’ve Got Your Music (Single Version)
‘Words And Music By Saint Etienne’ is released 21st May.
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Karin Park & Ladytron
Following last years ‘Tiger Dreams’ EP Karin Park has announced the release of her new album ‘Highwire Poetry’ next month, kicking things off with this lead-in, crazy good single ‘Restless’.
Her PR likes to call Karin ‘Electro-Goth’, really, take it from me, she’s not, not in the slightest, she is so far above that if she looked down she could barely see the tiny Electro-Goths running around like ants. What Karin actually is, is an incredible talented, interesting, unique ElectroPop artist who makes songs that are equally quirky, emotionally resonant and catchy. ‘Restless’ is one of those songs, a rousing, majestic slice of Icy Scandinavian analog Pop with an infections synth line and impassioned vocals. the single has been reMixes by Ladytron’s Reuben Wu, who apparently heard the track live and ran with it. Ruben delivers something surprisingly funky considering Ladytron’s recent work. recalling Ladytron of old, it’s a raw synth-fest that revels in Rubens electronic genius with layers and layers of sonic elements. Prefer the original though….
♫ Karin Park – Restless (Ladytron reMix)
♫ Karin Park – Restless (Radio Edit)
The ‘Restless’ single is out via State Of The Eye Recordings on 21st May with her début album ‘Highwire Poetry’ coming 28th May.
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The Polymuse
This is kind of a weird one. The Polymuse is an Arab-American soprano and internationally renowned Opera singer (I’ll have to take their word for that) Anymuse who has taken on this moniker to drop an EP of five ElectroPop tracks that celebrate her love of dance music.
It sounds like an awesome proposition, and Anymuse is definitely and passionate and talented singer, there’s just one time thing that irks us about the ‘Rebelution’ EP. The Production, courtesy of Dave Wrangler, is terribly dated. To highlight what is great on this EP (and there is a lot to love) Anymuse’s vocals are pretty flawless. She sings with emotion and strength. Her songs are really good too, catchy, meaningful and resonant in a way only highlighted by her soulful performance. The music isn’t bad per-se, not bad enough for us to not really like the EP, but it’s just a little flat and uninspired. Last year’s (last decade’s?) hands-in-the-air riffs, under-produced drums that dominate the mix in a way that makes your toes curl a little and sounds reminiscant of 1998’s Access Virus presets (the ones everyone used back then). Like we said, it’s not really so bad that it stops our enjoyment of the EP, which is really enjoyable, we just can’t help but wonder how much more awesome the EP would have been in the hands of a more talented, or more relevant, producer. Maybe next time. The Polymuse is an extremely talented singer and songwriter, and thankfully that dominates the EP, we’d definitely be interested in hearing more from her.
♫ The Polymuse – Rebelution
♫ The Polymuse – Road 2 Nowhere
The Polymuse’s ‘Rebelution’ EP is out now.
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Lovelock’s ‘Burning Feeling’
From the opening notes of the heavy synth bassline of the title track of ‘Burning Feeling’, the début album from Lovelock, you know something synthetically special is happening. Lovelock is one of the many monikers of Synth legend Steve Moore. I say ‘legend’ because the man has a prolific and consistently amazing out put. Whether it’s as in Zombi or Miracle or as Gianna Rossi or just himself you know that with the Moore stamp on it, you’re in for some amazing, emotional synth work.
His latest release, Lovelock’s ‘Burning Feeling’ is in part a collection of his work under this pseudonym to date, some of the tracks, including the title, date back a couple of years and will be familiar to most fans of synth music, whist some are brand new, and the two sit side by side effortlessly. maybe du in part to Moore’s retro influences, maybe just due to the sheer quality of the songs, nothing on the album sound dated (or at least, not dated in the bad sense of the word). The album is loaded with futuristic Sci-Fi soundscapes and Cosmic Disco grooves, robotic Italo basslines and heartfelt Funk. ‘Burning Feeling’ itself is one of the most powerful SynthPop tracks you’ll hear in a while. Punchy EBM basslines and jackhammer drums mix with epic power ballad vocals to create a weird, but utterly amazing Industrial/Pop crossover. Elsewhere on the album Lovelock presents a more boogie laden Moroder-esque analog Disco vibe with track like ‘New Age Christ’ .Maybe Tonight’ and ‘The Fog’, albeit with his trademark warbling synth solos along for the ride. Mainly, though, ‘Burning Feeling’ is like the best collection of ‘80’s TV themes that never existed. ‘Deco District’ channels a more New York Disco version of Jan Hammer, as does ‘Love Reaction’ which ups the ante with some sweet female vocals. And in the middle of all this future funk and soundtrack majesty sits ‘South beach Sunrise’, a chilled out respite from the energy of the rest of the record, complete with a beautiful sax solo. ‘Burning Feeling’ truly is a masterpiece, an amazingly good album that impresses right from the moment you put it on. An electronic music fan’s record collection is just not complete without this album.
♫ Lovelock – Don’t Turn Away (From My Love)
♫ Lovelock – Love Reaction
♫ Lovelock – Maybe Tonight
♫ Lovelock – South Beach Sunrise
Lovelock’s ‘Burning Feeling’ is released 26th April on Prins Thomas’s Internasjonal imprint.
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Ultravox’s new single
What can you say about Ultravox? Electronic music legends. Whether you’re on Team Foxx or Team Ure there can be no doubt the contribution Ultravox, in whatever incarnation, have made to both Electronic music and Pop music, influencing a generation that would go on to lay the building blocks for all forms of Dance music and bringing a certain majestic quality to early 80’s SynthPop.
Having reformed the classic Ure line up in 2008 for reunion tours it was always claimed that the band wouldn’t be writing new material, turns out that was a bluff and there’s a new album waiting to be released in May. Before that we can have our first listen to the new single, and album title track, ‘Brilliant’, a huge slice of PowerPop that retains the Epic quality of the early Ure years and has a surprising edge to it. Also, how Italo is that bassline? Bodes well for the album.
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♫ Ultravox – Brilliant (Radio Rip)
‘Brilliant’ is released 28th May.
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Strangers ‘Shine On you’ video
London SynthPoppers Strangers’ new single ‘Shine On You’ has finally gone and got itself a video! I’m glad it did, it’s definitely a track deserved of visuals.
Tom Doran directs this clip, with an epic visual style to match the majestic sound of the track. ‘Shine On You’ truly is anthemic and the video does it;s best to live up to that.
‘Shine On You’ is out this week on Killing Moon Limited/Beatwolf Records.
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College’s new mixtape
College – Every Single Time Mix = Valerie head honcho David Grellier A.K.A. College whips up a brand new mix with some really surprising, but very welcome elements. Xeno & Oaklander and Hyboid rubbing shoulders with Scratch Massive? Eclectic!
♫ College – Every Single Time Mix
The tracklist:
01. Phochos – Glaciers
02. Ian Boddy – Pulse
03. Starcluster – Winter of Ice
04. Mistral – Jamie
05. Young Monday – Zaire
06. Scratch Massive (Feat. Jimmy Somerville) – Take Me There
07. Charles Lindberg N.E.V – Peinlich Peinlich
08. Terminal Twilight – The Lovers
09. Hyboid – Requiem For Hyboid
10. Xeno & Oaklander – Desert Rose
11. Kate Bush – Running Up That Hill
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