{"id":1086,"date":"2008-12-03T12:55:30","date_gmt":"2008-12-03T11:55:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ireallylovemusic.co.uk\/blog\/?p=1086"},"modified":"2008-12-03T12:55:31","modified_gmt":"2008-12-03T11:55:31","slug":"microfilm-the-slingshot-orchestra","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/ireallylovemusic.co.uk\/blog\/?p=1086","title":{"rendered":"microfilm – the slingshot orchestra"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"slingshotorchestra_cover\"<\/a> <\/p>\n

a sign of things to come perhaps ? <\/p>\n

when an album as good as this is being distributed by the band purely in digital form with little or no interest from labels in these cashflow , then surely the writing is on the wall.<\/p>\n

in other words : keep your day job and make music instead of watching tv.<\/p>\n

microfilm<\/strong> make electronic music.<\/p>\n

some of it is of a dance-pop variety, some of it is more mellow.<\/p>\n

all of it is beautiful.<\/p>\n

the band themselves describe their style as "melancholic disco", which is pretty apt if truth be told.<\/p>\n

microfilm<\/strong> are a techno pop duo, with one small subtle difference to most others out there at the moment.<\/p>\n

the people behind microfilm<\/strong> are both men : matthew mercer (electronics), and matt keppel (lyrics\/vocals).<\/p>\n

currently the classic "2 blokes and a keyboard" line up that dominated the electro’d up 80s is somewhat missing in pop. <\/p>\n

of course there is erasure<\/strong>, and the pet shop boys<\/strong>, but they are leftovers from the original era of electro-pop so don’t count.<\/p>\n

the music throughout the 12 tracks is a blend of minimal but beautiful electronics often encased within atmospheric synthetic strings. <\/p>\n

from time to time, there is a slight deviation in style, for example the so-called single, teenage symphonies<\/font>, incorporates a peter hook\/new order<\/strong> styled bass line, keeping the dance floor bunnies happy as well as the headphone listeners.<\/p>\n

one point to bear in mind, the laid back vocals throughout are treated with the ubiquitous use of vocoders, and so may prove to be a little too one-dimensional for some listeners, however, for this listener, given that 2008 has been all about music that lacks any vocals, this is not a problem at all. especially when the layered throbbing machine made music that surrounds the vocals is as enjoyable as this. <\/p>\n

the attention to detail in the production puts many major label efforts to shame. <\/p>\n

i would like to think that these guys should definitely be getting offers of remix work in 2009, and the microfilm<\/strong> name become more widespread.<\/p>\n

admittedly tracks like hospitalized for exhaustion<\/font> and disco demolition derby<\/font> with their deep repetitive robotic vocals, give the impression that the cold and clinical world of electroclash is being given another lease of life, thankfully, microfilm<\/strong> have a more emotional take on the much maligned genre, and in fact at times remind me of the more moody sounds of the beloved, <\/strong>which is never a bad thing.<\/p>\n

quite simply, <\/font>the slingshot orchestra<\/font> is highly recommended.<\/p>\n

more detail<\/u> : here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

a sign of things to come perhaps ? when an album as good as this is being distributed by the band purely in digital form with little or no interest from labels in these cashflow , then surely the writing is on the wall. in other words : keep your day job and make music […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1086","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-album-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/ireallylovemusic.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1086","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/ireallylovemusic.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/ireallylovemusic.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ireallylovemusic.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ireallylovemusic.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1086"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/ireallylovemusic.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1086\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/ireallylovemusic.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1086"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ireallylovemusic.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1086"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ireallylovemusic.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1086"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}