CD / DL
6 July 2018
8 / 10
U.S. electronic synth duo release their second
album.
Once upon a time there was a man called Reed Heys.
He played around with synthesizers but he particularly liked the Buchla. He had a friend called Caroline Schutz. She was a singer and she sang. In 2016, they released their debut album
Buchla And Singing and it received a great review from hiapop. Now Reed & Caroline are back. Reed still plays the buchla and Caroline
still sings.
Having Vince Clarke as a mutual friend certainly did
Reed Hays no harm. Signing up to Very
Records proved to be a wise move but, it could really have been any number of
record labels with the foresight to see that the duo’s simple and effective song
writing could be a success. Hello
Science sees the duo back with much more of the same music that made their
debut a sell-out. Vintage sounding pop with
a modern twist if you will, wonderfully written and arranged and often quite
beautiful.
Album opener Before, heads off an album influenced
by science, its effect on the present day and its possibilities for the
future. The voice of Schutz often sounds
like it is fed through a vocoder, making it pure and almost robotic sounding
complimenting the clinical electronic sound perfectly. Before is a superbly constructed song,
gurgling and bubbling away it slowly builds with a manipulated string section
with vocals that are nothing short of angelic.
It somehow resists the temptation to introduce percussion and for that
reason alone it should be applauded. It
sets the stall for Hello Science perfectly and could easily have worked as an
album closing overture.
Dark Matter ups the ante immediately. It pounds with bass and drum almost from the
beginning and its position on the track listing couldn’t really be any better
following the imperceptible angle of the opener. “Does dark matter, matter?” – who knows? – it
does however provide an addictive and catchy strapline to the song. A near acapella break after the two minute
mark allows for breath before the beat steps up once more. This is exhilarating pop if ever it existed.
Reed & Caroline seem to have hit on something
with their sound. It’s unsullied and clean,
you could view your reflection in it or sharpen your knives on it. It is pure, a sort of manufactured time-slip
between early Kraftwerk and modern day perfect pop and, every song has a hook
that is almost impossible to shake off.
Each track will have you tapping a toe, a foot, maybe even a full leg
and will fill you with pure joy. Another
Solar System is one such song.
Its Science once more ditches the percussion element
in favour of a string section with suits Schutz down to the ground. The track races and then calms with her voice
duplicated and layered giving the impression of more than one vocalist and the
lone violin that ends the track is sombre but somehow uplifting. The intro to Digital Trash reminds of 2004
hit They from one hit wonder Jem, sweeping violin effects and upbeat percussion
once more aligning perfectly with Caroline’s voice.
Several of the tracks here are remarkably addictive
with Ocean being yet another which is perfect for radio play and one just knows
that it is only a matter of (short) time
before Reed & Caroline are heard on
mainstream radio. Entropy is jam
packed with lots of subtle but effective reverb and Internet Of Things, whilst
slightly amusing, does contain quite a dark story of technology takeover and possible
Big Brother connotations.
The album ends with a Vince Clarke remix of Before
where percussion is added together with that distinctive Erasure sound.
Reed & Caroline seem to have tapped into the current
retro pop market without actually being retro pop. Superbly written songs, catchy and
addictive. Wonderful synth effects and a
voice that completely captivates. Any
fan of synth pop will love this album.
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