A couple months ago, some fuck told me that Disco was back. 'Lies!' I exclaimed, but to my horror he was right. The genre of tack and it's happy catchy attitude has crept back to our clubs, in various forms and disguises. Cinnamon Chasers is one of the guilty.
The debut album, A Million Miles From Home, is sci-fi disco with a hyper active, space travel narrative - the sort of music you'd play if you were a manga character, shooting across a nebula, on a quest to rescue some doe-eyed moon princess. Russ Davies, the brains behind it all, inspired by childhood fantasies like The Never Ending Story or Flight of the Navigator, aims for the serotonin levels. In his own words: "I try to create music that gives me the vibe those classic films gave me as a kid"
The album is very well produced, bright and polished. Several tracks brush on the bass led familiarities of trance; the rest are structured around simple electric guitar riffs and soft and breathy male vocals, found in Air or M83. Every synth in A Million Miles From Home loves being a synth - loves it! - and on tracks such as Modern Love and Adored they sparkle in 16 beat rhythms, imitating twinkling constellations.
That's the good anyway. The bad is that there's not much below the surface. Davies keeps his nostalgic electronica away from prentension but, aside from one or two tracks, the record has a limited lifespan. To build a continuous play count, you'd have to either be 14 years old, or massively loved up on ecstasy, to the point where the colourful beams of lasers and the music are 'one', you know? And I'm neither. Cinnamon Chasers is just a bit too saccharine and predictable to be much more than your average electro.
(© Copyright 2009 Brendan Morgan)
1 comment:
Nearly a year on and man, was I wrong about this one.
Post a Comment