Fantastic Playroom

People pin hopes on New Young Pony Club

If you follow the events that take place in the world of dance music you must have already heard about that new “next big thing” called New Young Pony Club. It seems like there is no a single edition left that still keeps silence about talents of this underground band. Indeed, their debut album Fantastic Playroom is an unusual thing. It is a mixture of electronic, disco, indie and new wave. But whatever people rave about musical stylistic of New Young Pony Club and their innovative mission in the upshot the band will be attached to some genre anyway. And honestly speaking it is not so hard to guess what kind of a label they will receive when the stir will settle down. Their music seems to fit into the boarders of the so-called New Rave – a genre that managed to develop during 2006. And although some respected magazines prognosticate that this genre will fade way as quickly as it appeared each new record of such music causes unbelievable stir for the time being. Remember how Klaxons were greeted? The same thing is going on with New Young Pony Club at the moment, people pin hopes on them and simply admire their music.

Fantastic Playroom: a living alloy of genres

In order to get more or less precise picture of what kind of music New Young Pony Club play a short list of musical influences that one can distinguish in the band’s songs is needed. There is something from David Bowie, New Order, The Rapture and Blondie here but it doesn’t mean that the band is trying to imitate these performers, there are no concrete examples where you could trace some borrowed hooks. The band competently uses particles of moods and atmosphere discovered by these artists. But with all this going on the whole resulting alloy is having its own charisma, confidence and even impudence. The material as such is quite simple – just right for a dance floor, but the spirit of the music, the atmosphere itself sounds more than just modern. However, there are some disadvantages too. The general sound lives much to be desired. It seems to be too straightforward and flat. It frankly smells of 80’s, may be of early 90’s at the best and there is that trendy tendency to LoFi. It doesn’t contradict some stylistic elements, disco in particular, but considering that on a big scale this music borders purely club genres, they could pay more attention to the album’s sound.

New Rave or New Disco?

Now lets dwell upon some concrete examples. The most exemplifying songs are singles of course. Listen to Ice Cream and The Bomb – the songs that let the band reach nearly cult status even before their album was released. Here the essence of New Young Pony Club is reflected better than in any other track. A peculiar variant of modern disco in the best sense of this word. Mid tempo, constant low-frequent impulses of bass guitar and typical диско beat. Hiding On The Staircase turned out to be a great song too, here unlike rest of the album’s tracks the arrangement sound pretty reach. A few words about New Young Pony Club’s vocalist Tahita Bulmer. She plays a very big role in creating general image and the band’s appeal and attractiveness of music mostly depends on her. Her detached and unruffled vocal absorbs all the attention and at the same time manages to create a whole range of moods. Fantastic Playroom is sufficiently interesting album, it has both simplicity and a good share of stylish novelty. As concerns stylistic orientation of the album, the question remains without answer so far and this makes Fantastic Playroom even more interesting. Just give it a chance, it is quite possible that you’ll like it a lot.