Albums

Album Review: Black Affair

[Album: Pleasure Pressure Point]
[Label: V2]

Steve Mason has certainly always kept an open-mind with a view to what musical path he wants his talents to travel along. He’s had a crack at psychedelic meanderings with The Beta Band, tried a spot of acoustic folk with King Biscuit Time and now seems determined to explore his darker side. His new project, Black Affair, has emerged from it’s chrysalis as a gothic electro meets 80s synth-pop butterfly. Quite a shift then, but this debut album has certainly got elements of those former bands still peeking through in places.

The minute-long slow breathing on opening track ’PPP’ introduces the sexual momentum around which the whole caboodle has been constructed. Moving into ‘It Goes Like This’, Mason uses his soft vocal to explore this grimmest of fetishist fantasies, and by adding a Kraftwerk-inspired injection of robot monotone on ‘Just Keep Walking’ we are finally fully exposed to the oddly sinister, yet mesmeric experience that Black Affair are all about.

There are elements of danceable anthems going on here too with the quirky and confident ’It’s Real’ and the New Order ‘Blue Monday‘-inflected ‘You And Me’. Even ‘Japanese Happening’, a forthcoming single, has a grimy appeal. It’s all warping synth menace, tinkling, oriental bells and snare face-slaps which sit under Mason’s shushed vocal; the spot of reverb added has given it the feeling that Mason is standing right behind you.

There’s much to admire here but it’s no cakewalk - some grab you instantly whilst others need repeated plays. Even then, you’ll find some too insipid to hit home with definite filler material on display. There is a real class act here though - ‘Tak! Attack!’ is all grunt with it’s insistent pulse and R&B sensibilities it’s already found a happy home on the radio playlists. Instantly recognisable and feverishly anthemic it oozes class and shows just what Mason’s latest foray into the unknown is truly capable of.

For fans of: Fischerspooner, Ladytron, New Order
Band link = Black Affair
Fansite = Click

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