The Ghent-based, Belgian electronica-dance and acclaimed remix maestro brothers David and Stephen Dewaele and co return with a catchy, quirky, witty, droll new LP, thematically about society’s fragile state, and their first new music in seven years, mischievously described as “a rock album made without any electric guitars”. It was created entirely from modular synths, live drums, tape machines and processed vocals, and thematically reflects, like a fractured mirror, on modern life on the brink where is distorted by filters, algorithms and noise. Lyrically, as appropriate for their genre, the songs are dotted with pithy, ironic phrases and gentle prods at life’s absurdities, many of of which are simply the titles - or although it contains more details, the refrain: “To your false economy, I let the market decide”, parodying neo-liberalism. But fundamentally, with an album that also celebrates 30 years as artists, it’s packed with catchy bangers, morphing cleverly into each other. After the piano keyboard experimental opener Pills and People Gone, it really takes off from the rich synth beats of the single Run Free (“I wanna run free / With the music / It's a beautiful mistake / Try not to lose it”), the drum-rolling richness of Meanwhile On The Continent, the scratchy robotic sounds of New Earth Time, the squiggly syncopations and jangly bells sounds of the title track, or Gimme A Reason’s fabulously melancholy but pure electro-pop. The pace and style varies more at the this point, but there’s clever variation, such as the catchy, bleepy, big synth squirts and False Economy, or the mock-rock-guitar of Hot Sahara. A fitting release to mark their anniversary by a sibling pair who have mastered their oeuvre with clever, efficient originality. Long may they continue. Out on DEEWEE / Because Music.
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