New music from The Soft Moon (the alter ego of multi-instrumentalist and producer Luis Vasquez), ahead of new full-length, “Deeper”, due March 31 on Captured Tracks. You can pre-order the album here.
Where previous output largely worked within the grey scale of post-punk and gothic new wave, “Black” is shot through with bursts of obsidian. Dark rumblings of the kind of late-80s, dancier (but no less menacing for it – think early Ministry and Skinny Puppy) industrial heard also in new bands like LA’s great Youth Code. The track opens with a throbbing bassline and martial drum tone that grows closer like a descending fog. No cat paws here, however- more like an army of Terminator machines from the year 2029 – the song bursting through with peals of air-raid siren synthesizers and the repeated phrases “I don’t care what you say/live life my own way” and “I don’t care what they say/live in life your own way” (or something to that affect). This kind of thing can easily devolve into pantomimed angry disaffection, but the quality of the arrangements and the urgency of it all makes this a very strong single.
Taken from to-be-released Girls In Peacetime Want to Dance (due January), this track shows a different side to the well-established Glaswegian outfit’s sound. While B&S have never shied away from dance rhythms, past grooves reminded more of Ready, Steady, Go – this cut is more Dance Party USA; a shimmering, glossy piece of late-80s club, complete with whiteboy funky lead guitar and a snaky (synth) bassline.
This tune may yet inspire the band’s notoriously bookish fans to discard their cardigans and do the Roger Rabbit – ‘Where’s Me Jumper’, indeed. Check out the video, below.
The Juan MacLean, In a Dream (DFArecords, 9/16/14)
Electronic music tends to mine its past when crafting its present. “New” sounds tend to be an amalgamation of sounds that came before, perhaps presented in a new way or via novel platform; often mutated by what came in between. Dreams are, similarly, a subconscious manifestation of memories of past experiences, morphed by our current reaction to an emotional and/or physical state.
The new album by The Juan MacLean is called In a Dream, and it conjures many Ghosts of Dance Music past. As with the duo’s earlier releases – which recalled, variously, Chicago house, new wave, techno and disco – the sonic touchstones here are plentiful. A partial list of those I noted upon repeat listening include: early Madonna and mid-80s NYC new wave/dance music in general (“You Were a Runaway”); Temperamental-era Everything But the Girl (“Here I Am”, “Charlotte”); New Order (the guitar line at the 1:16 mark of “Love Stops Here”, the glassy, Technique-sounding synths in “Here I Am”); and early new wave (the intro and boy/girl response vocals of “I’ve Waited for So Long” recalls Human League). Several of the album’s highlights – the sublime “A Simple Design”, centerpiece “Love Stops Here”, “Running Back to You” and closer “The Sun Will Never Set On Our Love” – are satisfying combinations of these influences.
In fact, the album I kept coming back to while listening to In a Dream was Ministry’s much derided (by the band – I personally love it still) debut, With Sympathy. A trio of Dream’s cuts, “Running”, “Design” and “Runaway” very much recall the sound and feeling of that record, with vocalist Nancy Whang often sounding a bit like Shay Jones (backing vocalist on Sympathy’s “I Wanted to Tell Her”). “Running” takes it a step further; Sympathy synth lines welded onto a tune recalling the lush 80s R&B of labels like Tabu Records – the SOS Band meets pre-heroin Ministry! Naturellement!
The album is no mere nostalgia trip, however – it is as timely as it is timeless; taking cues from the past to shape the present. It is a beautiful marriage of lush, sweeping electronic wistfulness with darkly romantic lyrics, delivered by Whang (fantastic throughout) in a way that brings back the classic (somewhat detached) club diva. The sequencing is also spot on, with opener “Space is the Place” bookended by “The Sun Will Never Set On Our Love”. The latter – with its imperious, Vangelis(y) opening chords and titular, epic proclamation (here referring to love’s survival in the face of ecologic apocalypse, rather than empire-building) – could have been a fine centerpiece, but the ending refrain of sending love “in a rocket shape/send it out in space” provides the perfect coda to what is certainly one of this year’s best releases.
Highlights include: “Running Back to You”; “The Sun Will Never Set On Our Love”; “A Simple Design”; “Here I Am”).
As well as being a date to remember Ian Curtis, May 18th also marks the 14th anniversary of this band - the first ever Peter Hook & The Light show was on May 18th 2010 in Manchester… we are 14! WOW! Thank you to everyone who has ever come to see us. We will keep going!
Follow me into a solo
Get in the flow
And you can picture like a photo
Music mix
Mellow
Maintains 2 make
Melodies for MCs
Motivate the breaks
Im everlastin
I can go on for days & days
With rhyme displays
That engrave
Deep as Xrays
I can take a phrase that’s rarely heard
Flip it
