808 Dot Pop are back with 2 new albums all centered around the concept of the world of wireless, and in the tradition of radio, we have an AM album "AM 1350" and we have an FM album "FM 88.2".
For our first review we take a look at the "FM 88.2" album.....
I have been lucky enough to hear this album develop from very early demo's, the concept is something that brings back memories for me, because back in the Late 79s and early 80s I was a keen Short Wave Radio listener and loved building Crystal Radio sets, even from the early ideas I knew this would be a concept Passenger S would embrace, and I was always on hand for information about the subject and amazingly I also got to co-write a few songs for the project too!
The albums have been constructed as if you were listening to a radio show, so we have a signature tune to open proceedings, with station idents in different languages, the show gets under way with the track "RCA AR-812", which is a famous radio receiver from the 1940's, the track doesn't disappoint, wonderful melodies and sequences, really upbeat too, excellent use of voice samples too, really impressive start.
From there we tune into some shortwave radio broadcast samples, my that takes me back, lots of radio stations as you turn the tuner and plenty of atmospheric noise and interference.
"Heinrich Hertz" is a track I co-wrote with Passenger S, it has a darker edge to this song, lots of trademark sequencer parts and melody hooks, really excellent synth sounds and punchy bass-line. again the voice samples work a treat, excellent track :)
"Österreich 3" has a haunting pad intro with sequencers being put to work, has a similar feel to it as the previous track, good use of choirs, I like what he has done with the voices in the track, they sound quite sinister.
Next up we have the brilliant "Distant Voices (On The Radio)" featuring the vocal talents of Lis van den Akker, who provides a dreamy vocal over an avalanche of melody hooks and well crafted synthetic sounds, I love this track, pure synthpop, one of the outstanding tracks on the album for me.
"Cat's Whisker" definitely gives centre stage, to the skill shown by Passenger S, in creating beautiful sequenced melodies, electro pop all the way, I love how the pace picks up too, a toe-tapper for sure, excellent again.
"Galena" is a mineral that was used to make early Crystal Radio sets, it detected radio signals, a simple brass synth lead melody opens this track, with a voice sample explaining what Galena is and what its uses are and of course we have the sequencer lines.
That moves sweetly into "Modulation" another big highlight on this album, all elements of the 808 Dot Pop sound are in this masterpiece, wonderful sequencer parts, nice synth lead sounds, the lead sequencer that drives the track is superb, the chorus is very atmospheric.
There are many components used to make radio's, and one of those, is "Capacitors", which is highlighted in the song "Capacitor", excellent Dusseldorf rhythm track over which we have wonderful synth sounds, especially the lead synths, this is another upbeat track, another fantastic song.
Next we come to the jewel in the crown, the track "Marconi", this was a track that I instantly heard a very raw demo of and thought it was outstanding, superb melody, I knew this was going to be big track on the album, I was so impressed with the demo, I wrote lyrics to the song on the day I heard the demo of the track, sent them to Passenger S and he instantly liked what I came up with, so they were used for the song, which Lis van den Akker sings beautifully, this song has everything, it is awash with so many magical melody momemts, it's catchy and instantly grabs you, one of the greatest songs Passenger S has recorded, awesome!
"Marconi" then merges with a morse code message and then we are hit with the powerhouse "Antenna", which Passenegr s has said is his favourite track from the entire concept, a nice catchy intro with a synth lead and beautiful choir, the track builds and more melody lines are introduced, great bass synth too, then we see the bpm raised to great effect, the song develops really well and is another highlight on this album.
We then have "Closedown FM", which is the closing of the programme as the host bids you goodnight.
Perfection from start to finish, as a body of work this compares to the Metroland album "Mind The Gap", it is an exceptional piece of work, something he has put a lot of time and energy into and it has paid off. 10/10
The album is available on CD:
https://store.alfa-matrix-store.com/product/808-dot-pop-fm88-2-cd/
Next for review..............AM 1350
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