Spacebuoy - Breathe

"The Future's Bright; The Future's Orange" - A quote often attributed to the biggest shower of bastards in telecoms - nay, in business History. Therefore, I have great respect for Spacebuoy for strongly allowing me to be able to believe it again.

You see, Lichfield's H and Jez have somewhat of a band obsession going on with the colour - from backgrounds to costumes, almost everything is Orange - which has become perhaps one of Spacebuoy's two main themes - the other of course being the extra-terrestrial sounds that they weave in with their Synthpop.

Following the "Fashionista" release, "Breathe" is a short EP capitalising on the groups successful show in London - unlike the aforementioned Orange incompetence, Spacebuoy COULD provide me with a signal in the capital - a gorgeous, analogue wave of melody and enjoyable dancing. Despite the noted difference between the two, it's pretty freaking obvious just how far this duo are going to go - here's why.

"Flames" opens the EP, with H's vocals being the closest thing to traditional Synthpop. "Move your body like Mechanical Jesus" - the first thing we hear embellishes everything Spacebuoy do that's different - H has a great distinctive voice which almost sounds sightly alien, but the vocal melodies outshine so many of the competitors in the scene - they're very catchy and unusual, and Jez' more traditional song-writing actually give this track one hell of an appeal!

"Breathe" is my favourite of the four, with much less traditional Synth - it sounds very "spacey" - both H and Jez putting in overtime to make a quirky sounding track. Again, the vocal melodies are so catchy and well performed that it's a go-er. The track builds in from dark verse to catchy bridge to pure poppy chorus - reminding me of some of the genre greats. Amazing in the car on a summers day!

"The Look To Die For " - Much more upbeat, and likely to be a popular track on compilations and mixes.

"Cassiopeia" is pure genius. It's incredibly experimental, reminiscent of "Electric Funeral", and talks about the A-Bomb and "Shadows in my eye" (Cataracts). The song is so moribund and dark - but beautifully slow and tragic.

On the whole, Spacebuoy are stunning. The best thing to happen to Orange, the best thing to happen to Lichfield, and one of the best things to happen to UK Electro in a while.

There's no reason this isn't worth getting. Jun 12 2013