SOFT METALS

Soft Metals is the electronic romance of Ian Hicks and Patricia Hall of Portland. They hooked up because of their mutual love for 80's minimal synthpop, Chicago house and Italo disco.

A genre that has again become a popular niche and partly responsible for the rediscovery of vinyl. Needless to say, I'm also fond of 300 pounds worth of analog synths. My first real love in this genre was Martial Canterel but Soft Metals is entirely different. The same instruments but everything sounds a lot warmer and poppier. They have a keen ear for a good catchy melody so almost every song on this record is a floorkiller. Let your feet follow the coloured tiles and lose yourself in the smoke machine!

Minimal synthpop dominates the album, however there's also some funky disco to be found, "Always" and "Pain". A track that a bit under par is "Do You Remember", it does not sound very convincing.

The shorter songs "Celestial Call" and "Hold My Breath" sound a lot like Absolute Body Control, instrumental and a bit more experimental. Also the last track sound like very early Klinik (Time Watch), without the creepy howls. So while sticking to analog devices, Soft Metals has plenty of variation and thus I can recommend this to anyone who liked 80's synthpop.

Chris KONINGS
20/01/2013