"Golden Summer" by Batsch
Review
And so we come to what might be the third in a trilogy of singles released so late in the summer of 2024 that we might wonder if the timing is an attempted conjuration on the part of each artist to prolong the sunny season. We have had "Love in a Park (on a Sunday Afternoon)" from Ellie Gowers, "Rock Girl Summer" from Abz Winter & now "Golden Summer" from Batsch: their follow up to June's "Knew No Different".
However this is Batsch we are talking about & while the first two songs mentioned above bubble with unmediated optimism & surrender to the (sunny) moment, Mason (Le Long) & Matt (Rheeston) offer their own truths: which are as skewed from the orthodox perspective as their previous work would suggest.
Honesty is the bedrock of all I seek in an artist: pretty much all else in terms of quality flows from this starting point. This is their viewpoint & we must accept & respect it. It's variation from the mainstream "norm" can only be seen as a plus factor: I really have heard all the summertime cliches and tropes in songs that I want to hear thank you & unless the track reflects personal experiences & feelings like Ellie & Abz's do, then it risks saying nothing new.
Batsch are above all risk takers: not perhaps in the sense of seeking to provoke or outrage, but rather in saying what's on their mind and not having any interest in conforming for the sake of trying to please a broad audience.
That said, they promote themselves as making music for "….fans of Fourtet, Little Dragon, Solange". Rather closer to home, one might add Bar Pandora, Alys Rain, Lucifer Sky, Duke Keats, Shanghai Hostage or Duck Thieves and many others, all of whom share, in one format or another, that lack of fear in establishing (through experimentation when necessary) whatever music best articulates what they hear in their heads regardless of mainstream nostrums & their constraints. Yet all these artists do possess significant fanbases of the open minded and all are popular live: it can be done if you discard any fear. And since Batsch were operating before any of the above, one could speculate on their role in preparing the necessary environment. Their own influence also extends to side projects such as Matt's Riizbo, their enigmatic !nvisible Hand and again one could conjecture how much this liberating philosophy empowers the young bands such as Project Overload or Loophole whom Mason mentors & produces.
"Golden Summer" has its tongue in its cheek regarding its name, but is one of their charming, melodic & playful songs with a valid message. The seasonal changes can be traumatic to those who are sensitive to change (and factor in climate anxieties for deepening this) and we end up with the psychologically interesting notion of someone whose only "enjoyment" of summer can be vicariously through that of those around him.
Popular music has occasionally dabbled in exploring the "dark" side of summer ("Cruel Summer" by Bananarama or "The Other Side of Summer" by Elvis Costello: the latter of which was exploring the ecological issues even in 1991) but for the most part, these look at phenomena within summer: "Golden Summer" goes further into an unusual seasonal affective disorder.
Not of course that the musical backdrop for all this angst gives much away about the lyrical content. Juxtaposing the moods of words & sounds is one of the first elements in the Batsch manual. Other ones much reflect a very low boredom threshold in terms of reproducing what's gone before and "how much can we get away with & still keep it melodic?".
Well they've spent a career jabbing away at that last envelope, expanding it but never bursting it. Deconstructing the elements is beyond me & why should I try? It's the whole they want us to hear, not the sum of their parts. Some of these do seem to have originated on conventional instruments: others presumably were generated or found. The combination clearly took a lot of imagination & effort and is worth it: it keeps you on your toes and if one moment you feel like dancing (someone else has dubbed them ‘dark disco') then they never let you settle into a state of complacency and constantly seek to unsettle you.
Otherwise, they seem to have had as much fun behind the desk as in front of it. Sounds & performances put in appearances but through various processes so that they play a variety of roles in the song. Other elements suddenly pop in, vanish & may or may not recur. It's possible some do but treated differently so I didn't spot what had happened. I have to confess that I initially assumed (never a good idea with this band) that Mason sang "Knew No Different" but I was wrong. It's hard to tell with processed vocals though. He sings this one he tells me.
It all comes across as impossible to recreate live, but I bet they will. Which leads me neatly on to the final paragraph.
As a bonus, you can also experience an event which is rarer than it ought to be & that's a Batsch live performance: it'll be at the FarGo 10th Birthday celebration on Saturday 28th September at 1430: after which you can see Project Overload, Duck Thieves, Special Brew, The Bellows, Bobbie Dazzle & The Primitives. It's free to see Batsch & the three succeeding artists. The last three require a ticket but it's a mere £3 with all proceeds going to Coventry & Warwickshire MIND (here is the link:
https://www.fargovillage.co.uk/product/the-big-birthday-saturday-music)
