
Devereaux – Hatchets
Similar artists: Air, Massive Attack, Metric
Genre: Indietronica
Devereaux might be looking to sell us all to an alien force wishing to enslave us, but they are cleverly hiding their intentions behind danceable electro beats.
People usually turn to pop music to avoid bad news. This is all fine and good, but it can get a bit boring. That is why, once in a while, an artist will come along to marry the bad and the good, to confuse the minds of their audience, and to give audiences and critics alike something that they’ll struggle to get their heads around.
It’s easy to deliver any kind of information as long as you have a good beat behind it. From murderous, tyrannical regimes incorporating their propaganda into their parades to Western corporations incorporating their propaganda into state-sanctioned parades, a la World Cups and Olympics, it’s a formula that the powerful have learned off.
It’s not just state actors using these electro beats to do their bidding. Devereaux’s stylish “Hatchets” is a dance song that also happens to be about intergalactic wars. It may sound far-fetched, but it all works on account of its flawless design and something in our own minds that makes us look at the likes of Devereaux as the ones holding a secret key.
Anton Barbeau – Waiting On The Radio
Similar artists: XTC, Robyn Hitchcock, Julian Cope, Momus
Genre: Indie Rock
Anton Barbeau is betting on his radio to save him in times of trouble and unbearable anxiety. It’s more foresight than most of us have.
The ones that gave up their passion for pop records really managed to alter their lives. More than any other group of collectors, they’ve happily altered their lives. What made them do it? The pretty sounds that promised a different, better world. In retrospect, it’s easy to see how someone could get hooked on these kinds of promises.
Their parents were right. This wasn’t some innocent pastime either. There were consequences. Record collectors usually live the principles advertised by the people writing the records. They dedicate their working hours to collecting information about these pop songs. And most importantly, they use this music to drift away back to that promised land. Pretty dangerous behaviour, if you ask me.
Anton Barbeau’s spent a lifetime absorbing the energy of pop records. And, if you believe “Waiting for the Radio”, any sort of crisis, will have him taking a queue and solace from the music he has grown up serving. It’s a merry power-pop song that drives this, the kind that music critics and record collectors like. And, well, one could easily do worst with one’s life.