Got a special notice in my e-mail this morning trumping the arrival of an EP by The Gold Party, an Athens supergroup of sorts which came together to triumph their love of synths, dance music and 80s nostalgia for early OMD and Depeche Mode. The Athens band was giving the EP away to those who signed up on its Facebook page, and since I love synths and early OMD, I couldn’t resist.
Suffice to say the self-titled EP, which was assisted by the producing abilities of Andy LeMaster, is a fine display of a band that knows what it wants. There can be a problem with mimicking music from the past – too often the attempts are crude and come across as cheap knockoffs. But this is not the case here – what Benji Barton, Dan Geller, Brian Smith and Sethen Maleno have created works because it sounds at home in 1983 as well as 2010.
Luxury & Light, the lead track, is a great one. Barton’s voice and intonation is perfect for this genre, as he dives in and out of the song’s string-driven synths with ease. Discolite, which is dancey as the title suggests, grooves along with playful pings and a driving drum beat. On Your Side is a mixture of the two songs, coming in at a catchy three minutes (though the band adds the Feral Youth Remix of On Your Side for good measure – it’s so Depeche Mode of them).
It’s a polished piece of music, well worth a listen.
