Tag: Banarama Cruel Summer

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

David Halsey is a rising 23-year-old Bay Area-based singer/songwriter and producer, best known as Petticoat. The rising pop artist has received attention across the blogosphere for crafting a shimmering synth pop sound that draws from 80s New Wave and dance music and bubblegum bass. “I love the music from eras that have had an eye towards futurism,” Halsey says. “Things like 2000s RnB and modern club/pop music.” And as a result, the young pop artist’s work evokes a swooning nostalgia — while being remarkably contemporary. Thematically, the rising Bay Area-based artist’s work explores contemporary life in the 21st century and gender expression and more.

Last year, Hasley released his debut EP, InFormat. The five song EP thematically examined the impact of modern technology on human connection. Sonically, some parts of the material echoed algorithmic structures while other parts were distinctly human. Building upon the momentum of InFormat, Halsey’s latest single “The Middle” finds the rising Bay Area artist further establishing his decidedly 80s inspired sound while gently expanding upon it. Centered around shimmering space age synths, tropical rhythms, a propulsive four-on-the-floor, Halsey’s plaintive falsetto and a euphoric, two-step inducing hook, “The Middle” is a crafted pop confection that brings Bananarama‘s “Cruel Summer,” The Thompson Twins and Tears for Fears to mind — but with a modern production slickness.

“‘The Middle’ is a direct inspiration from 80’s New Wave that I grew up on,” Halsey explains in press notes. “I was listening to a lot of Bananarama and Thompson Twins making this track. The song is a simple ‘break-free’ type song about leaving a hometown situation. The song is sprinkled with events and places that transpired when I was 18, all based around my home with my brother and father.”

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Single Review by William Ruben Helms

 

Polish-born electro pop artist Patti Yang splits her time between London and California and with the release of “Invisible Tears,” the first single off her forthcoming debut album, Yang and her backing band quickly received attention for a sound that draws from industrial electronica, electronic music and punk rock. The album’s latest single “Black Box” draws from the same influences, Yang and her backing band pair tense, undulating synth stabs with propulsive, industrial clang and clatter with Yang’s sultry and seductive cooing seemingly writhing through and the mix.

While the song may be remarkably contemporary but it also manages to sound as though it could have easily been released in 1983; in fact, the song reminds me a little bit of Banarama‘s “Cruel Summer” — but a little chillier. Thematically and lyrically the song focus on a narrator, who’s constantly seeking and striving for the peak moment in every single aspect of her life. And although the song reportedly adapts the idea of traveling through a black hole as a metaphor, it also uses “black box turning to gold” as a naughty double entendre for sensual pleasure, which may make this particular single the sexiest, most dance floor ready single the act has released to date.