Storm Queen – It Goes On
If memory serves me right it was around this time last year that Morgan Geist debuted the Storm Queen project with “Look Right Through”, and in the process wiped the floor with most of the year’s music in one smooth, acid tinged swoop. I will admit when I saw “It Goes On” announced my first thought was “well, this couldn’t be as good”. But then we are dealing with Geist here so I probably should have been a bit more positive. “It Goes On” follows the same path tread by the debut, utilising the same sounds to create a pristine pop production with a chunky bassline and svelte vocals (delivered again by Damon C. Scott). Last year he teased us before dropping that acid line half way through, and again Geist keeps us waiting for 3 minutes before the track really lifts off, with a chorus that I think even surpasses “Look Right Here”. He reigns it again after, keeping the listener on the edge of their seat for another 3rd of the song before he returns to it, when finally Scott properly lets go on the histrionics. This will test the patience of the dance floor but the pay off is just so worth it. The B-side offers a dub that is more direct in it’s approach that is certain to find it’s fans but I can’t get enough of Scott’s contributions to these tracks, so I gotta go with the vocal. Another fine attempt by Geist to get another record filed away under “classic”.
Raiders of the Lost ARP – Battlestar EP
Mario Pierro’s work as Raiders of the Lost ARP has been the sort of project that I’ve felt I should like more than I actually do. Yeah, he’s got a few gems in his cannon but at times I’ve felt his approach to re-styling deep Detroit-inspired techno and electro has been a little bit too clean for it’s own good. When he veers more into cosmic territory it becomes more effective and this is where we see him on the latest Lunar Disko release. As a friend said to me recently, if you’re gonna put the word “theme” in your song title, you’d wanna be delivering a big song, and Pierro rises to the challenge with the opening “Night Theme”. At 7 minutes long it doesn’t do a whole lot for most of it. It hits us in the face with BIG synth stabs at the beginning before it goes all cosmic sci-fi for the majority of the song, keeping it’s head above water with a throbbing bassline. Like Geist above, he’s more than happy to keep the listener waiting and waiting – more so than the former, actually – but eventually he lets it all drop and the hook comes back in, this time backed with a rolling disco beat, wherein you pull one of those scrunched up gurn faces of sheer delight.
The B-side, “Lunar Lander”, packs a fair old punch too, staying on the electronic disco tip, with a soaring female vocal carrying the first part of the song before Pierro once again drags the listener into a spaced out mid section before the keys and vocals come back in. It lacks the impact of the originals main hook but it’s groove is more insistent and is sure to cause a bit of havoc on a dancefloor. Dutch maestro Rude 66 delivers a remix of each track which takes them in a totally different direction. Moving at what seems like half the pace of the originals, he re-tools the euphoria of the originals and brings them into deeper space, coating them in his typically dark and atmospheric stylings, leaving us with an Ep of 2 contrasting styles, both equally satisfying. (The video below is a shortened edit of the opener, btw)
Clio – Eyes
Long before the current Chicago revival was in full swing Clone’s Classic Cut series was unearthing gems from the golden age of Chi-town. The series was also on it with Italo re-issues such as T.F. Los Angeles’ Magical Body and Plastic Doll by Dharma and in a smart move Clone return to Italo for the first time in 4 years at a time when old Chicago re-issues seem to be ten a penny (or maybe I’m just confusing it with all the current knock offs). This time we get 3 versions of Eyes by Clio, 2 from back in the day and a new edit. If many of the elements seem familiar it’s because the chap behind Clio was also behind Pineapples – Come On Closer (a personal Italo fave). What we have here is Grade A Italo, combining those symplistic, naive Italo riffs with typically semi non-sensical vocals/lyrics (I don’t have a fucking clue what she’s singing about in the chorus even though the verses are in English) all wrapped in perfect pop melodies.
There isn’t a huge difference between the original and Paris versions, both are pretty awesome, and the edit serves us up a take that moves it away from more the linear pop song structure of the original and into trackier, club territory that is probably more approachable for those who only like to tread lightly in the world of Italo. Lightweights. Like Storm Queen, for me, the vocals are an intrinsic part of the song, losing a part of it’s magic without.