ARTIFICIAL PLEASURE

Acid washed fuzz funk? Is that even a genre? Probably not, but if it was to ever be invented it would be to describe this tune from the enigmatic Artificial Pleasure. Chock-filled with 80s musical tropes (gated reverb on the snares, glam-scuzz sounds, powerful from-the belly vocals, and Echo. On. Everything.) ‘Bolt From the Blue‘ is certainly the cheese to the chalk of the new music regularly served up these days.

Having picked up lofty comparisons to Bowie and Peter Gabriel already, who am I to to lower the sights? Let’s throw a slight reminiscence to Prince into the ring, alongside the stadium space-pop-rock pretensions of Muse. Ultimately though, it was a bit of a blind-siding experience first hearing this, with quite how far away it is from either the mainstream or the substream of the day. This however can definitely be seen as a good thing. Hooks are hooks, and ‘Bolt From the Blue‘ has it’s fair share, as well as opening up a retro-modern stylistic can of worms. One to take notice of for sure.

Words by Lewis Lloyd-Kinnings

Tipped by Charlotte Holroyd