Neon Indian is the solo recording project of the Mexican-born, Denton, TX-based singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and electronic music artist Alan Palomo. With the release of his first two albums, 2009’s Psychic Chasms and 2013’s Era Extraña, Palomo found his profile expanding across the blogosphere as Psychic Chasms was released to critical praise from the likes of Pitchfork, who had named it one of its best albums of that year, and by Spin Magazine, who praised the effort for its dreamy feel, and Era Extraña was followed by a North American tour with with Purity Ring and Com Truise. This was followed by the Errata Anex EP, which featured remixes of material off Era Extraña from Optimo, Boyd Rice, Patten, Actress, and Twin Shadow — all of whom Palomo had recruited, because the Neon Indian creative mastermind had been listening to quite a bit while on tour.
Late last year, Palomo announced that he was starting work on Neon Indian’s third full-length album, an effort that he hoped would be released sometime in 2015, which has been officially titled VEGA INTL. Night School. Night School’s first single “Annie” was recently released to critical praise from the likes of Pitchfork and Paste, as the song clearly drew influence from 80s synth pop and R&B — and was comprised of a taut yet sinuous bass line, angular funk guitar chords and shimmering and cascading synth stabs paired with Palomo’s plaintive falsetto — and sonically the song possessed an uncanny resemblance to Rush Midnight and the Cascine Records roster, which also specialize in an extremely similar, sleek and summer party funk.
Interestingly, the album’s latest single “Slumlord” is a slickly produced yet densely layered song features layers of cascading synth chords stacked upon each other, wobbling bass, propulsive, four-on-the floor drum programming, and Palomo’s plaintive falsetto to create a sound that sounds as though it equally draws from 80s synth pop as it does from I Love You It’s Cool-era Bear in Heaven as it’s a club-banging electro pop tune with a sincere, aching heart at its core; however, the addition of a vocal sample from a Spanish club gives the song an off-kilter, surrealist air — all while remaining incredibly crowd pleasing.
