The Bergamot – Burns
Genre: Electro Pop, Commercial, Indie Pop
Just what is the purpose of pop music anyway? When it was started, the main idea was to create music that could be understood by the masses and could offer them entertainment and solace. Naturally, as music evolved great masters of pop music began to emerge. Some of these had radical ideas of where it ought to travel, and who it ought to travel towards.
That’s how, at some point, pop music was provided with artists making grand statements to their music. And, the more grandiose these statements became, the less willing were these artists to create for everybody. Pop music splintered. Most artists, especially those making the most complex type of popular music, opted to create for specific audiences.
The Bergamot are traditionalists. The duo creates music for everybody. They don’t do this out of a desire to compromise their work, and somehow achieve more success by doing so. They are after an earnest desire to offer solace to as many people as possible. Burns is a pop song, make no mistake. But, it’s a cleverly written, orchestrated, and produced pop song that plays around with the limitations of the format. It’s alt-pop, but it’s not beyond looking to create a connection.
Pardon Service – Club de la carrosserie française
Ska, Pop Punk, Adult Contemporary
Nobody likes ska, at last not publically, but everyone seems to enjoy Balkan music, even though the essentials of those styles of music are the same. Well, not the same, but enough for the casual listener to draw a correlation.
Both of them feature brass instruments, albeit because of different reasons. Both feature complex rhythms, with Balkan music favouring uneven beats, and Ska accentuating the offbeat. They both aim to make people happier. And, both, are essentially dance music created for and by white folks. As an inhabitant of a Balkan country, I can confirm that this is a style of music much more respected outside of the borders of the countries where it originated.
Pardon Service’s Club de la carrosserie française is a fun track that works upon the inherent playfulness of these tracks. It’s very well-orchestrated and recorded in spite of its DYI focus. Like much of ska it ends up sounding like the soundtrack to a Sunday morning cartoon, something that most people will agree is delightful. Would it fly at a Balkan wedding though? If the guests were pissed enough, perhaps.
