Chad Valley – Fast Challenges

             Cascine is a label specializing in “Experimental Pop”. That means smooth sounds, vocals, and an undeniable fondness for sweet melodies. I’ve been sort of following them for a while, wondering when I’ll get overwhelmed by one of the artists. Each artist is carefully chosen for sure. Whoever selects the sounds has good taste and some serious frequent flier miles (hanging out in Florence and Stockholm; being based out of London, New York and Los Angeles. I guess the term ‘jet set’ still has meaning.) But only today did I hear something that ‘blew me away’.

                Hugo Manuel (the man behind Chad Valley) is something grand. It is no surprise he’s from the UK. Electronic acts are just better across the sea, I’m not sure why. The Puritans who came here lacked the genetic makeup for serious club bangers and electronic pop music in general. We had boy bands, utter rubbish, the UK gets Chad Valley. Somehow I feel a tad cheated. 

                “Fast Challenges” is a teaser for the EP out in the beginning of the summer, June 20^th to be precise. A summer release makes sense, as the song itself positively shines. Yet again, I’m convinced trance pop will make a comeback before I turn too old to dance. The build on this is great; the vocals are pitch-perfect, and the sound. Well as a few commenters have already stated, it is lush. Early 90s lush, I enjoy the extreme attention to detail percussion and all.

                I’m happy he comes from Oxford. Oxford is quintessential England to me, with canals, crew teams and tea houses. Chad Valley represents to me the quintessential sweet trance pop song which I hope will become a tad more common. A teaser this good is a rare treat indeed.

Evil Madness – Super Great Love 7.5

                 Evil Madness is a super-group of Scandinavian bands you’ve never heard of: Stilluppsteypa, BJ Nilsen, and Johann Johannsson. Despite most of these performers’ positions in the extreme avant-garde (even by their own label’s standards, Emego, they are obscure) this is a fun record with a good sense of humor. Those familiar with the tongue-in-cheek irony of Trans Am will need that attitude to get through these songs.

                 This music is extremely playful. Arpeggios are literally strewn all over the place. A more than passing resemblance to an updated Kraftwerk is unavoidable: Evil Madness holds an affinity for old equipment and certain skewed pop sensibilities.

                A surprisingly large of electronic genres gets close scrutiny. Trance is here in tracks like “Divine Sensual Love Fantasy” (yes, the song’s title is part of the joke). Some of the songs seem to share a lot in common with Soft Pink Truth’s approach to dance music, just enough kitschy humor to make it enjoyable. 

                Other songs appear to draw strength from hyper-active pop music. “Café Eindhoven” would be the smash hit if Evil Madness was interested in hits, which it clearly isn’t. It stomps, raves up, and generally goes insane. But the longest song “Maxim’s Goldfinger” which includes distorted vocals is the most fun on here. Towards the end it completely gets cut up mere inches away from death. 

                Basically, this is a group of normally experimental musicians having some fun within the confines of trashy pop techno. Due to their training and practice, it is a surprisingly enjoyable affair.

Games – That We Can Play 7.2

Oneohtrix Point Never’s influence is heavily felt in this release, much more so than in their previous offering “Everything is working”. Here they seem to hit that sweet spot between nostalgic remembering and the creation of something new. In other words, it succeeds where the previous effort sounded weak or thin.

Don’t worry; it isn’t as if this is very difficult music. The pop elements expose themselves immediately like they did in the previous release. Unlike that one, there’s much more in the way of hooks (if that’s possible) and the keyboards are in full effect. Remember that wonderful soaring synthesizers that Dan Lopatin specializes in? Yeah, that is here.

The more I listen to this, the more this appears to celebrate cheesy trance pop from the 90s. Can Games lead the pack towards this particular part of the 90s wave, of guilty pleasures with trance pop? “Strawberry Skies” sounds like it might have fit in nicely with Paul van Dyke’s “Castles in the Sky”. As much fun as this one is, I really adore “Shadows in Bloom”.  This song I wish went on for a few more minutes, it is just so damn addictive, in particular those jerking edits. 

In case the four songs weren’t enough, there’s a Games remix of CFCF and CFC remix of Games. Honestly, I prefer the original Games mix of “Strawberry Skies” and I haven’t heard the original CFCF, but Games’ mix sounds pretty sweet.

Overall, this solidifies my support for these guys. They are moving in the right direction.