No not an Echo & the Bunnymen post, but Ladytron's new single "Sugar".
In my weltanschaung Ladytron's 1st two albums were peerless tours de force of the most pleasure-centre-caressing synth textures, positively narcotic riffs and melodies, brutal and brittle beats, melodious whisperings and stern Euro-accented speak-overs, connecting the (8-bit Commodore 64) dots between Nancy Sinatra, Nico, Abba, Wendy Carlos, all the ususal synth-suspects (K*******k, John Foxx, Human League, Mantronix, even 10 City) and the cinematic "I Travel" Europhilia of British New Wave (Visage, early Simple Minds, John Foxx, Human League...).
Not to mention the unexpected details - atonal violin scrapings, charming beatless songs (School's Out), 3/4 time micro-symphonies (Light and Magic), Peter Hook-esque bass (Cracked LCD), beautifully observed lyrical moments (And the way they look/They were made to let each other down... Have you ever been in love/For quarter of an hour or above?...Why are you boys frowning/Have you lost something?). Scarcely a foot was put wrong over the course of two albums, a veritable cornucopia of pop treats from another world where the future really was futuristic, just like the past thought it would be.
So to the "Sugar" single - exciting and shocking to hear them mixing MBV Isn't Anything-era guitars with a rockier feel than their oeuvre so far... but I'm not sure if it will lead them down a cul-de-sac of techno-rock (littered with the rusting carcasses of Sigue Sigue Sputnik, later Jesus & Mary Chain, later Sisters of Mercy, the Prodigy) or some new cyborg symbiosis of woman and machine that will bestride the pop charts of the future like a colossus....
...any thoughts?
In my weltanschaung Ladytron's 1st two albums were peerless tours de force of the most pleasure-centre-caressing synth textures, positively narcotic riffs and melodies, brutal and brittle beats, melodious whisperings and stern Euro-accented speak-overs, connecting the (8-bit Commodore 64) dots between Nancy Sinatra, Nico, Abba, Wendy Carlos, all the ususal synth-suspects (K*******k, John Foxx, Human League, Mantronix, even 10 City) and the cinematic "I Travel" Europhilia of British New Wave (Visage, early Simple Minds, John Foxx, Human League...).
Not to mention the unexpected details - atonal violin scrapings, charming beatless songs (School's Out), 3/4 time micro-symphonies (Light and Magic), Peter Hook-esque bass (Cracked LCD), beautifully observed lyrical moments (And the way they look/They were made to let each other down... Have you ever been in love/For quarter of an hour or above?...Why are you boys frowning/Have you lost something?). Scarcely a foot was put wrong over the course of two albums, a veritable cornucopia of pop treats from another world where the future really was futuristic, just like the past thought it would be.
So to the "Sugar" single - exciting and shocking to hear them mixing MBV Isn't Anything-era guitars with a rockier feel than their oeuvre so far... but I'm not sure if it will lead them down a cul-de-sac of techno-rock (littered with the rusting carcasses of Sigue Sigue Sputnik, later Jesus & Mary Chain, later Sisters of Mercy, the Prodigy) or some new cyborg symbiosis of woman and machine that will bestride the pop charts of the future like a colossus....
...any thoughts?