Rewiev ReGen Magazine
Title: Chinese Theatre - Voices and Machines
Label: Section 44
Rated: 
Date: Friday, November 09, 2007
This Swedish duo present a well-established but enjoyable synthpop sound on their debut album.
By rights, this album should be credited to Chinese Theatre and Friends as a number of artists make pretty substantial contributions to most of the tracks on here, working alongside the duo of Krister and Martina. The best known is probably !distain, whose Manfred Thomaser pops up on "History Forecast," a melancholic track which is given the privilege of being remixed twice at the end, including the bombastic Hajas remix as well as Peter Rainman's rhythmically stronger Time Code remix, which would make an excellent single (even if it isn't representative of the album as a whole).
For the most part, the music sticks very much to the current lighter European synthpop sound with the widespread analog content, bringing the work of Celluloide to mind, with "Stationary" in particular following the same principles of mixing bleepy synths with a melancholic mood. The collaborators seem to concentrate mainly on the vocals it seems as there's a strong musical thread running through such tracks as "Electric Sound" and the more assertive "Breathe In Breathe Out" that comes complete with sirens, as well as the bouncy analog-flavored "With a Broken View," which is certain to appeal to old-school synthpoppers everywhere! There's no doubt, however, who's responsible for the mouthwateringly exotic French voice on "Top of the Pop" as Foretaste's Sylvie Billy makes the track her own. Another surprise was the participation of Melody Lane, who, it turns out, are one of Krister's old bands and who presumably are at least partly responsible for the stronger rhythmic base that forms another memorable track, "Change of Time."
That's not to say that Martina herself is any slouch in the vocal department, proving herself on the "all our own work" tracks such as the opening "I'm Not Like You," which starts off in the most sickeningly bubblegum-pop way imaginable. The darker lyrics act as a counterpoint to the playful mood, providing the only bright spot, although the instrumental "Dawn of the Day" and the immediately memorable "Breaking Free" (a more danceable version of which also pops up as an unannounced extra track at the end) do more to prove their own talent with the latter track in particular shaping up to be a real fan favorite.
While the duo sticks to some well-established synthpop parameters, they easily do it as well as anyone, which makes this a worthwhile debut that all synthpoppers should check out pronto.
Review by: Carl Jenkinson
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