Smart, Pan-European electro-popsters DEFEND MOSCOW are already sounding like they're well worth a flutter in the Dark Horse stakes.
Their debut single 'Manifesto' was ravenously-received and its' anti-fascist groove thang was allied to a barnstorming tune aided and abetted by Jon Beck and Sofie Storaas' strident vocal pairing. It was intelligent, colourful and aware and it promised great things.
This reviewer's already been banging on about styles coming in circles today and 'Manifesto”s erstwhile follow-up 'Die Tonight' again seems to bring this theory to fruition because it concerns that old chestnut: the four-minute warning. For any of you born after the mid-seventies, this relates to the time we'd have left after that all-destructive nuclear strike has been launched. Back in the days of the Cold War, it was apparently going to be one of two superpowers (Russia or America) who were supposedly liable to do such a thing, but these days it seems rather less easily-defined.
Still, the pervasive threat was enough of a catalyst for some great tunes back in the day. This writer still regularly refers back to urgency slices of social commentary like Wah! Heat's 'Seven Minutes To Midnight', Fischer Z's 'Red Skies Over Paradise' and, er, The Freshies' 'Wrap Up The Rockets' – one of a certain Mr. Sievey's finest moments before he would morph into the infamous Mr. Frank Sidebottom.
Anyway, enuff of the shaky history lesson. Let's rock. In a sleek and electro-tinged kinda way with 'Die Tonight', because if we're gonna celebrate mutually-assured destruction, let's at least do it in style. Indeed, Defend Moscow insist upon a slinky, come hither bassline and a wash of uplifting, synth-clad melancholia, the likes of which has ensured New Order and Depeche Mode have been on first name terms with arenas and large fields for a couple of decades now.
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Additional tune 'Sign of Life' brings up a second dark subject matter: this time from the point of view of someone on a life support machine and the apparent hopelessness of the situation, as portrayed by lyrics like “all that's left is a memory of love.” From a performance point of view, though, it's becoming clear that Beck and Storaas appear to have been born to harmonise together and the song itself has that yearning, aching vibe that – if done with feeling – never entirely goes out of fashion.
Being the conscientious reviewer he is, your correspondent has even trawled through the interminable remixes. The best of these is probably the synapse-bothering Frenchie Project Mix which – as the title suggests, is very Daft Punk and ramps up the beats, glitches and all-round otherworldliness. It buffs up DF'S club credentials but is more of an aside than anything else.
So there you go. Defend Moscow have succeeded in making politics, life-support and a potential apocalypse sound danceably attractive and they're only on to their second single. Blimey. Makes you wonder what they could wheel out when the album arrives. Maybe your reviewer should get on with erecting that fallout shelter while he's got the chance.
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