"La Metropole" by dogmarket

Isn't evolution a wonderful thing? I've shared multiple reviews of dogmarket (and their "mousebites" appears on ‘Hot Music Live Presents Volume Sixteen‘): each time describing them as the solo project of Thom Lea.

However anyone who was at the Hot Music Live Presents fundraiser for The Tin in July probably spotted two people on stage when they played and now with the release of the single "La Metropole" (out tomorrow) the band bio also cites "trumpet-keyboard wizard" Nico Moss (who was the other person you'd have seen) as part of dogmarket.

If last release "His Body, A Screen" brought them closer to a danceable pop sensibility, then you'll probably not be surprised to hear that the new one (to my ears at least) continues in this more accessible vein (in relation to the harsher and more obscurist earlier tracks).

That isn't to suggest any selling out of artistic integrity: Thom uses the word "anxiety" as the main aim of what they are trying to get across: they are just using something which comes across as decadent Weimar cabaret approach to put the points across. The neuroses are articulated in a suffocating Germanic arrangement which if anything evokes the feeling of brave if doomed artists making their statement with the dread of the knock on the door from the Gestapo ever in their mind.

If you are sceptical of that reading, think of intervening creativity like the likes of Mark 1 Human League exploring dark themes while trying to get to grips with first generation synthesisers and using Kraftwerk as a guide. Tellingly, Thom speaks also of creating with "a broken laptop, dodgy second-hand guitar and one synthesiser": you can still be lo-fi with hi-tech. It's a state of mind which generates interesting material.

The actual worry explored here is "internet misanthropy's marriage to climate anxiety" though I feel "La Metropole's" air of paranoia could convey any form of anxiety especially when the writer feels disempowered and "frustrated": they speak of "an impotent frustration channeled into a song that ultimately changes nothing."

And I think that's crucial to understand the song: the sort of empowerment song which identifies a problem and encourages the listener to contemplate joining forces to face it down has a certain buoyant feel. This certainly doesn't: the darker, more cynical tone is arguably more interesting and will hopefully appeal to those who aren't seeking feelgood panaceas. It's possible that I'm suggesting a potential audience within the Goth community.

Anyway I liked it & value it.  

There is also a great video (which may not be publicly visible until tomorrow I suspect) which has so much extra detail & captions which add to the sense of confusion and alienation. And yet these attributes sit on a bed of a stately authoritative arrangement creating the sense of tension inherent in the whole piece.

 dogmarket simply progress each outing.