What else are blogs good for if not explorations of personal psychosexual development?

I was maybe 10 or 11, being driven to my first session of after-school rugby practice by my dad. Affirmation by Savage Garden was in the CD player. The album was written by Darren Hayes after his divorce from his wife, and just before he came out as gay. It has an undercurrent of sexual freedom and emotional openness that was not lost on me as a kid.

Rugby practice was painful. I didn’t like it. I could sense the disappointment my dad felt at seeing his son be so afraid of physical contact and pain.

But it was OK, because we were getting back in the car and there was more Savage Garden playing.

I enjoy thinking about this moment a lot. The richness and warmth of being attracted to something new and exciting. The melancholy of feeling confusion at not receiving unconditional love from a parent. The desire to hide away from the world while wanting so much from it.

I’m much more a child of Savage Garden than a child of my dad – and I’m grateful for it.

Synth music often belongs on a spectrum between hardcore electronic tones and cheesy ’80s pop.

Music at the more electronic end can be brain-meltingly intense (Com Truise is a good example), while music of the pop variety can be lyrically sickly sweet, and it doesn’t take long to get tired of the same drum-machine cowbell sound that should have long ago been deleted from everyone’s samplers (check out Sunglasses Kid if you are, for some reason, curious).

I love music at both ends of the spectrum, for different reasons. The brain-melting tonal stuff can be a fun experience, alone in the dark with good headphones. And the super-cheesy catalogue has some real gems; from lovingly-crafted pastiches of ’80s culture and sounds, to genuinely catchy and well-produced tracks that could be mistaken for a fresh single from Spandau Ballet.

But Synth music that can sit between these two extremes, and offer a balance of synth-y extravagance with the classic sound of ’80s optimism.

This balance has always been the hallmark of Brothertiger, outfit of US artist John Jagos. His recent EP, A Chain of Islands, is a perfect example of how well Brothertiger can merge the sounds of the ’80s with modern synth.

Continue reading “Album Review – Chain of Islands EP” →