Last Night I Woke From A Dream...
von
Hendryk Loewenhertz
As a lover of pure pop it's been a long, long time since i've had the luxury of encountering that rarest of creatures - A Proper Pop Album. Certainly there are a myriad CD's released every week, of every month, of every year- some better than others granted, but the majority comprise a couple, a handful if you're lucky- of decent singles bulked out with filler tracks which in age of iTunes magpie purchasing can be picked through & too easily discarded.
*The Snoopy Lads* debut Long Player – ‘A Ruby in Blue’ - is not one of these.
Not since The Human League's ‘Dare’, ‘Non Stop Erotic Cabaret’ by Soft Cell, ABC's ‘The Lexicon Of Love’, Depeche Mode's ‘Violator’, the Pet Shop Boys' ‘Very’ & if I may be so bold, the troubled masterpiece that is Britney's ‘Blackout’ have I been seduced, intoxicated & utterly enveloped by an electronic pop record as ‘A Ruby In Blue’.
Berliners Hendryk & Basty not only have an idiosyncratic & unique sound - one part sumptuous post House romance pop, one part yearning melancholic white soul, but like all the above acts have visually & aesthetically (with their inspirational photographers Tina Cassati & Attila Hartwig) created their very own ‘Snoopy Lads’ Universe. A Garden Of Eden where the spirits of Pierre Et Gilles, Tom of Finland & Dangerous Liaisons hang silently. Only the blindest of fans could pass the homoeroticism & chemistry of two such strikingly different looking men- but this is a world where the chaste early 20th century ideal of The Romance Of Male Friendship still very much exists.
While not in any way a concept album, ‘A Ruby In Blue’ is so immaculately arranged as to feel like the soundtrack to a film or musical one hasn't yet seen. Opening with the title track & followed by ‘Can't You See (What's Going On)’ before you know it you're in, full gallop, there's no getting off. If there are a mere two digressions from the album’s pace & path it would be only in the perhaps overly theatrical Torch Song melancholia of ‘Pandora's Box’, or ‘Coward's’ perky kitsch electro pop. However the album’s conclusion with the standout future classics ‘It's Raining’ and ‘Waltz On A 4-4 Time Beat’ is the stroke of 2 songwriters who are confident enough to save the very best until last. I defy anyone not to weep, red wine in hand, to ‘It's Raining’, or to sit back from the end of ‘Waltz’ & ache for the melancholic joy of a pop traditon snaking back from vintage Doobie Brothers via the Pet Shop Boys, Aha & most recently Royksopp. Add to this a handful of bravely metamorphic remixes by such MySpace luminaries as Tareq Techsoir, Subharmonics, I.B & the boys themselves, and you have a perfect post modern pop debut.
Of course comparisons are for dullards & fools, and I genuinely have no idea (but cannot wait to see) where Hendryk & Basty will possibly take us next - but for now, Ladies & Gentlemen, it is my pleasure to present *The Snoopy Lads*.
Dom Agius.
London,
April 2008
