The Art Of Pop

SPC ECO The Art of Pop…The title says it all really. This is an album about Art and Pop. Quite unlike any previous SPC ECO release in almost every way, apart from the fact that it's made by the same two people. ( Rose Berlin and Dean Garcia ) There are no guitars, there are no dense walls of sound and noise that we've come to expect from a S E song. Miraculously those elements and trademark niches are not missed at all on this record. They have been replaced with cleverly produced artfully pulsed electronica, memorable catchy melodies and a vocal delivery to die for. Rose Berlin's voice has always been the icing on top of a very densely layered S E cake, her voice seems to go from strength to strength from one release to the next as she matures and explores her voice. The vocals on T A O P are made by someone with great skill and ability, not in the sense of them being highly trained, polished and technical but the complete opposite, they sound effortlessly natural and completely at home.

It's fascinating to ponder where S E will go from here. We've had flavours of this record with tracks like Push and Delusional Waste from previous releases but this collection of songs seems to completely embrace those two and explore their foundations to the core. The albums heart and soul is finely tuned by concentrating on the main and minimal ingredients that make up a great Pop song, that being the melody, structure, sonics and pulse. All four elements are all present and correct, right the way through from the opening song Burn It Down to the spaced out and Shamanic tribal spook tones of Full Flow we are treated to song after song of minimal future Pop noir that has the charm and depth to make us dance and cry at the same time. Rose Berlin lights these songs with a brightly lit black bulb and Dean's maverick production skills are at full noir tilt throughout. S E are not scared to explore the music they love and this record is all about that. Nothing wrong with that.