Psych-pop veteran Anton Barbeau is not a fan of being tied down to a particular genre. If anything, being stuck a particular niche is artistically limiting and it only fans of your music more of the same, basically making the same record all over again. He named his latest Power Pop!!!, a genre that is prone to nitpicking and in-fighting since the late '60s and early '70s. Barbeau does offer the hooks, the melodies and throws the occasional nod to boy-meets-girl storytelling, but he goes out on a limb to show off his impressive palette of influences, whether it is garage rock, New Wave, electro-pop (Free, Running On The Edge Of The Knife) or even Dylan - he goes as far as to mimic his vocals in The Drugs.
Power Pop!!! is filled with twists and turns, offering a cornupia of licks and samples (a very un-power pop thing to do). He is on a roll right now, brimming with ideas and his only fear is that his output will get cut short prematurely. Dying in a car crash would really suck, as he states in American Road, a belated answer to Albert Hammond's I Don't Wanna Die In An Air Disaster.
At this stage of his career, he knows that he can get away with a catchy synth throwaway such as Slash Zed Zip sitting next to a dead serious pledge of allegiance to post-punk legend Julian Cope. Barbeau floats above the genres, sweeping down to cherry-pick the elements that tickle his fancy and create something special and refreshing. And that is the true power of pop.
Anton Barbeau: many if not most synths, piano, guitars, Hofner bass, drum box, Hausgemacht samples...
Rosie Abbott: vocals on 3, 6, 9, 10, 18; sampled “whisper” on 16; guitar, bass, keys on 6 (pt 1)
Kevin Allison: sleazy fuzz-slide and twiddly blues-wank guitars on 5
Julia VBHV: vocals on 2, 6, “breathing” on 6
Lara Miyazaki: Latatron on 1, 3, 5, 16
Jeff Simons: fretless bridge bass on 3
Donald “Donn-Eye” Ross Skinner: guitars on 2, sampled guitars on 4, 11
Charlotte Tupman: distortion guitars on 6 (pt 2)
Fred Quenitin: saxophone and sampled sax on 6 (pt 2)
Urbano: sampled drums on 4
Power Pop!!! is released via Big Stir Records (CD, digital).
Tracks:- Entrez-Vous Dans Les Maisons
- Power Pop
- American Road
- The Never Crying Wolf Boy
- Hillbilly Village
- The Sound
- Pompadour Toupee
- The Drugs
- Free
- Slash Zed Zip
- Julian Cope
- La Revanche Du Genre
- When I Am Happy
- Fretless Bronze (For Matthew)
- Running On The Edge Of The Knife
- Whisper In The Wind
- Rain, Rain
- Valerie's Waiting
- Prologue, Literally
HCTF review of Oh The Joys We Live For.
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