I do believe we’ve featured most if not all the singles released so far from Red Cell’s forthcoming and eponymously named album which comes out later this month. This is the fifth anyway.
Common to all of them has been a strong hook(s) and here it (they) is (are) again…
Red Cell is successfully perpetuating a 1990s synth-pop/new wave style which, if it hasn’t died out, is far less frequently heard these days in the mainstream media, and a new audience of teenagers for whom Erasure has been rubbed out, Depeche is no longer a la Mode, and New Order is old hat awaits them. If they play their cards right Red Cell could heavily influence a new new-wave of club dancers if you see where I’m surfing from.
In their PR they say, ‘Going back before going on’ “could, in a parallel universe, easily have gone straight to the Eurovision Song Contest finals and probably won the whole thing. It’s that catchy.”
To be honest I don’t think it’s the most tuneful of the singles they’ve released so far but it is catchy even so and they’ve mastered the art of contrasting high-pitched bongly (my made up word) synths with a deeper and very Erasure-like bass sound that suggests something darker in the mix, and which is usually complemented by Jimmy Skeppstedt’s bleak lyrics and resonant vocal.
As for Eurovision, I reckon this year they would have been on a hiding to nothing in this real universe. As I write, the second semi final of Melodifestivalen, which ultimately chooses the Swedish entry, is taking place. But the formidable Loreen is already through to the final with maximum points for her song ‘Tattoo’, which is really ‘Euphoria 2.0’
Will she be on the Eurovision stage in Liverpool in May? Will she win it? Is the Pope Catholic? Is wrestling fixed? But be careful where you park your car, love, and lock your wheel nuts.
But you’ve got to be in it to win it and I see no reason why a memorable synth-pop song shouldn’t do exactly that. Perhaps next year for Red Cell?
The release of ‘Red Cell’ on March 17th means a new start for the group in many respects and they say that musically it is definitely their strongest album to date, and perhaps even points out a direction for future music.
Red Cell will celebrate the album release with an exclusive appearance at this year’s edition of the synth equivalent of the Grammy Awards: Synthsläggan – which will take place on March 18th at Nalen Klubb in Stockholm.
This year Red Cell celebrates 20 years as a band and much has happened in that time. From playing a rock-hard fusion of EBM/future pop and seven-string industrial metal on the first record ‘Hybrid Society’ – yes, I do recall it – (and with a 7th position on the official hard rock chart), via the future pop-scented second record ‘Lead or Follow’ to the third record ‘Endings and Beginnings’, the original quartet has become the duo we know them as today and that meant the end of one era, but the beginning of another.
‘Going back before going on’ was released on February 24th. The album is scheduled for March 17th. Both on Stupid Dream Records.
