69corp - our present to the future
well following their corps recent single this sonically diverse debut album came as a total surprise to me. the single 'demon seed' is an excellently dark electro groover as reported elsewhere .. so naturally i expected more of the same.
instead the album is a complete record collection in 69 minutes (they couldn't resist, could they ?) with so many easy journo reference points .. so being all lazy and such like .. here's the list - new order (title track), mercury rev (nowhere walking, trapped in the time being), primal scream (various), beach boys and even baggy beats.
weirdly this complete mish mash of songs and musical magpie actions work really well. the lads have crafted a wonderfully fascinating electro pop album. yes it may dark and uncomfortable here and there, but there are so many dashes of colour and harmony the listening journey is well balanced in favour of euphoria and life affirming experiences. after all hear the sheer blissful production on the sunset perfection of 'every loop every lock' with the layered vocals, simple piano chord progression and it's not long before the harsh winter conditions are evaporated for a few minutes of welcome escape.
admittedly, it's not a perfect album, mainly due to a lack of individuality in the vocals. especially as they use the same layered/echoed vocal effects throughout, which means a lot of the songs can appear relatively one dimensional, but as the sonic surroundings are so lovingly crafted this minor gripe is easily dispelled, and any rising of negativity is washed away in the sheer bliss out ambience when 'soda calm' kicks in - quietly of course - with the song being a perfect example of the bands grasp of machine driven beauty. for all its devotion to the future the album actually comes across in many places as an 80's take on futuristic music where even the instrumental '..becomes nine' sounds like a kraftwerk spin off projects, with the fat wooshing synths, subtle cutup vocal samples and 808 beatbox booms. still it's a great track.
within the opening 30 seconds of 'dbtr' which, i believe, stands for 'down by the river' (tis the lyrics of the songs hook) - a reference to the location where laura palmer was discovered possibly? with the twisted twang'd guitar in the widescreen production cementing the theory to certainty that this is indeed a twin peaks homage. for those that need to install a beat in their lives as opposed to the excess of sunshine harmonies, then head straight for the dance floor destined 'asteroids' - the pounding electroclash mono synth line which provides the foundation proves the guys have a vast collection of classic 80's pop records, get this track remixed by richard x (or blackstrobe) and the world could indeed be theirs. finally 'trust me thats venus' drifts into vocoder hell and heaven. nothing too exciting, just brings the album to a nice conclusion with the phrase 'its a bad seed' (or something like that !) to an impressive layered synthetic build up. leaving an unnecessary 7 minutes of space and time before the final little extra ', only time', which detracts from the excellent 'leave em gagging for more' type of album closer that they could provided.
so, not a bad debut. 69corp have managed to match the current demand for 80's synthetics with a desire to create modern grandiose epic pop : welcome to the future.