Song reviews

“Home Fires” by Tranquil Sea sounds like it has been squeezed flat to fit into the indie rock genre with all the artistic flourishes that such a song needs getting pummelled by the incessant, and repetitive drums. Time for a remix, methinks.

Oddly appealed in a heavily sequenced way, “We Will Never Rule The World” by Lines escapes the dancefloor by the wicked addition of decadence courtesy of Dolores Haze. Is this what discontent sounds like these days? Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps.

Another example of bedsit electronica, “Undo” by Searmanas features all those synthesiser sounds that we know and love and tops them off with some ethereal and melancholic female vocals and that makes the song more effective when listening late at night.

If you are going to drown in your own influences then it makes perfect sense to dive deep into the bay of Britpop. Animal House do just that with “No Mamma” and find themselves floating quickly to the surface as their song turns out to be distinctly buoyant.

“Afterlife” starts off like bedsit electronica but, with some skilled guidance from Katmaz, the atmosphere builds rather successfully as the tempo picks up and the song starts to zig and zag. This one is more than good enough for product placement.

“The Becoming” is something of a low key melancholic listen but I suppose that is the point and Isla Craig does make the song sound convincing. Not uplifting therefore, but not every song has to be a happy song.

Again a retro sound looking back at the bleaker days of analogue synth pop with enough Bauhaus stylistic influences evident to permanently smudge a guy’s mascara, “Prey Drive” stalks the shadows successfully for Philadelphia band Kiss of the Whip. Sniff the finger, so to speak.

On first acquaintance, “Silence Won’t Help Me Now” sounds like a straight out of the box electronic pop song of today but Laura Jean Anderson has a trick or two up her sleeve and uses literate lyrics and a dash of drama to stamp her individuality all over the song.

I hazard a guess that Sercati are some sort of black metal band and they duly display vigour in their exploitation of the clichés inherent in the genre. The moderate tempo of “Shockwaves of the Countdown”, along with the hint of a melody, makes a pleasant change of pace and should keep the fans happy.

Following the minimalist bedsit electronica path with diligence does not prove to be much of a problem for Ivy Lab although the less attentive may not fully appreciate the post midnight chill out vibe of their song “Jet Lag”.

Another day and another retro song although this time it is the sequenced excesses of the nineties urban sound that are revisited. Fortunately, Maya Killtron makes a convincing effort at recreating those stretch limo days with “Satin Sheets”.

So determinedly retro that they could be analogue, Polychrome do the hypnotically looped electro pop thing like it was back in the day with their song “Dreaming About You” ticking all the right boxes for the trendsetters of today.