The eighties brought us many things, crap haircuts and dayglo socks being at least two. But musically there was the great divide. On one side, the outrageous bombastic synth and drum machine pop bands with taste defying fashion sense and digitally “enhanced” vocals. On the other, the indie bands. Who, incidentally, committed just as many crimes against fashion and production as their make up drenched adversaries. Okay, so it’s taken over a decade to happen but at long last one band have been brave/naive (delete as applicable) enough to combine the two.
Antenna are German. A country that produces cutting edge dance music but who’s guitar bands are about 20 years behind everyone else (see: Rammstein). Only Germany could produce a band that sound like Spandau Ballet fronted by Morrissey. But don’t assume my xenophobic skitting will lead to a complete ripping though. Antenna, unbelievably, are pretty good.
Once you’ve got over the Mozza inflections and the English-is-my-second-language lyrics On The Endless Waves presents some very strong indiepop tunes. Everybody’s Writing has a catchy vocal hook laden verse with a Rialto scaling chorus. The title track starts like something from the S.A.W. stables, but despite the disco beat glides into something more This Charming Man than Never Gonna Give You Up. The two other tracks here do their best to be the anthem (When No One Likes Us) and the one to drive to (Hall Of Mirrors).
Maybe we need more unconsciously unfashionable bands like Antenna in the UK, if only to stem off the constant sixties revivalism present in every “new” band since Oasis to The Strokes.
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8Andy (quirk) Thomas's Score