Black Affair

Pleasure Pressure Point | V2
By GUSTAVO TURNER  |  August 19, 2008
3.0 3.0 Stars
blackaffairinside.jpg
Steve Mason has been making interesting music since 1996, when the first of the three legendary EPs by his Beta Band was released to critical acclaim. The Betas disbanded in ’04, and whereas the more stable members of the band regrouped as charming retroistas the Aliens, the mercurial Mason has taken off into uncharted territory. Black Affair, his latest synth-pop experiment, belongs to the same genre as Jarvis Cocker’s Relaxed Muscle: sensitive indie man boy breaks up cult band, goes clubbing, is sexed up by shady ladies, feels somewhere between good-bad and bad-bad, tells the world about it, repeat. (See also Randy Newman’s “Mama Told Me Not To Come,” and, from the POV of the shady lady, Madonna’s “Erotica.”) At first, the minimalist, glitchy grooves sound like a lot of the neo-electro trend these days (e.g., Knight Rider’s Kitt beatboxing the instrumental break in Michael Jackson’s “Thriller”). But Mason’s off-kilter lyrics and psychedelic sense of melody soon overpower the thrift-store Gary Numan and Depeche pastiches and the trite S&M vibe, and “Will She Come” and “Japanese Happening” end up fitting perfectly with the best of his former band.
Related: Ike & Tina Turner | Sing The Blues, Koushik | Out My Window, Vetiver + Phosphorescent, More more >
  Topics: CD Reviews , Madonna (Entertainer), Celebrity News, Entertainment,  More more >
| More


Most Popular
ARTICLES BY GUSTAVO TURNER
Share this entry with Delicious
  •   IAN KING | PANIC GRASS AND FEVER FEW  |  March 16, 2010
    Just a few weeks after we reviewed the belated release of African Head Charge's latest, another, more recent gem from the always rewarding sonic laboratory of Adrian Sherwood arrives.
  •   JOE CUBA | EL ALCALDE DEL BARRIO  |  March 09, 2010
    Fania kicks off 2010 with what is sure to end up being one of the year's most important archival releases of Latin music.
  •   ALEJANDRO FRANOV | DIGITARIA  |  March 03, 2010
    Alejandro Franov is an Argentine multi-instrumentalist who's been involved in the more serious, and often experimental, side of the Buenos Aires music scene since he was a teen in the late 1980s.
  •   THE SOULJAZZ ORCHESTRA | RISING SUN  |  February 23, 2010
    We're living in the middle of a veritable renaissance of "Spiritual Jazz."
  •   AFRICAN HEAD CHARGE | VISION OF PSYCHEDELIC AFRICA  |  February 09, 2010
    UK dub guru Adrian Sherwood and adventurous percussionist Bonjo I have been releasing their sonic experiments as African Head Charge since the early 1980s.

 See all articles by: GUSTAVO TURNER