DAN CROLL/ PANAMA WEDDING, Communion/ Transmission,
Bully, 11/10/14
Going to see new bands at the moment is like one long pub
quiz. It’s not so much that the music is
retro – pop’s been retro since the second minute of its existence – it’s just
the current reference points are such odd mid-80s choices that we spend most of
our time amongst trendy, bopping audiences with furrowed brow, trying to dredge
up names that have lain dormant in the grey cells for 25 years. New York’s Panama Wedding, for example, with
their cleanly emotive, breathy vocals and bleached funk keyboard stabs, are
essentially Huey Lewis crossed with Brother Beyond. Two tracks in, presented with a riff redolent
of “Owner Of A Lonely Heart”, we’re gearing up to abhor them, but it turns out
that good pop music, played by a band that’s impeccably rehearsed without
dropping into cynical posturing, will always melt the hardest heart. “Uma” might be more suited to a rom com
miniature golf montage than the Bully, but essentially these guys are Hot Chip
with the irony replaced by gosh-darned American pluck and, frankly, they’re
just as good.
When they’re not spinning Now 7 for inspiration, hip young things are copping some tricks
from African music, although Dan Croll has recorded in Durban with the mighty Ladysmith
Black Mambazo, so he has clearly taken his influences more seriously than
most. But, ignoring a few high life
licks, tonight’s set owes far more to smooth, mildly euphoric pop, somewhere
between Black’s Moss Bros sophistication and The Beloved’s cultured Ibiza
comedowns. Croll’s voice might be a
little thin and falsetto-happy, but he has an articulacy that lifts the songs
beyond mere fluff. Whilst our favourite
tonight is “Can You Hear Me?”, an
improbably huge bass drum making it sound like MOP’s take on “Cold As Ice”
without the hip-hop, and whilst the odd guitar wail or gratuitous Meatloaf drum
fill sticks in our craw, Croll, like his support, reminds us that well-made
pop, with an ear for a ripe melody, will never go out of style, regardless of
fashion’s whims.
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