Jeremy Bastard – Everyone is History / There is no Memory
Jeremy Bastard new EP is out now.
Hailing from New York City, Jeremy Bastard is known as producer, musician, and DJ. I found this EP due to being a fan of DISOLVE. DISOLVE, AKA Matthew Molnar, has achieved many other noteworthy music projects. I am a fan of his previous work. This collaboration is no exception. If only to name a few, I strongly recommend Pagan Rituals if you dig this collaboration. If Jeremy Bastard’s track is too intense check out Kissing Is A Crime. Easily one of my top 3 favorite jangle pop bands in the last few years. Honorable mention to Dead Nation. Unsung speedy urgent punk rock circa ’99. These are all DISOLVE’s roots.
Alas, however great I might find his previous work I want to spotlight the current collaboration. Listen below and if you have the means, support the artists.
https://jeremybastard.bandcamp.com/album/everyone-is-history-there-is-no-memory
- Shadow Boxing (Feat: Elektra Monet)
- Needle (Feat: Sean Flannigan)
- I Slept With Faith and Found A Corpse In My Arms On Awakening (featuring DISOLVE)
- Kissses (Feat: Peter Riley of The Dossier)
- Riptide (Feat: Eric Shans of Phenotract / Fermion)
- I Am The Blue – Lidded Daughter Of Sunset (Feat: Emilie Bienne)
Shadow Boxing. Bouncy synth waves give way to Elektra Monet hypnotically and euphonically musing about a dream attack. The lyrics are a sensual experience. Engaging a beeter half of the five senses. Combined with the advancing and retreating synth bass attack, you have danceful bliss. Dig this picture, if you will ” Touched by your face . Wearing vintage leather perfume. You me , pink moon, dancing in the night. Whats your name tell me why”
You can paint your own picture and engage your own story into this world that Jeremy Bastard and Elektra Monet create.
The second track “Needle” features Sean Flannigan. This track is a powerful statement that pretty much takes New Order and synth pop to a more percussive modern plateau. Harder beats. The melodious 80’s pop sensibility peeks through. The clincher, vocally, comes late when the vocals sing ” Hard-pressed when you come to find me Circle round circle round so close your arms around me Circle round circle round.” The song leaves OMD/ New Order territory and enters Joy Division’s outer borders.
I can feel the singer(s) pain from the way they emote. It’s not quite a howl. It’s on pitch but it’s coming from a place of knowing your own wounds and vulnerable spots.
Next is the track that brought me to this alluring EP. “I Slept With Faith and Found a Corpse In My Arms On Awakening ” featuring DISOLVE. A dissonant, ringy synth morphs into a buzzsaw wave that could sear your cochlea (inner ear) if over amplified. DISOLVE’s voice feels drenched in wet reverb. This, up against multiple synth waves, creates an abrasive, yet sublime soundscape.
As synth drops out.. you are left with driving, straightforward bass guitar and canyon like singing that challenges genres and perception. Is it shoegaze? Electronic? Groovy? All of those things at once. Above all the genres don’t matter, the sound does.
Jeremy Bastard featuring DISOLVE ? A perfect marriage of gaze meets electro – groove
Kissses (featuring Peter Riley of the. Dossier) is one of the more busy compositions . There is heavy synth arpeggiation and more. It has a chaotic depth during the chorus. A depth that basic electronica might fear to tread. Kissses has more driving angular Bass. Peter Riley’s vocal modulates and undulates “Your Kisses, suspicious, best wishes” This track seems to reference tumultuous young love. Love that won’t last. I think anybody that’s loved their first can remember those days. Kisses is the appropriate soundtrack for revelling in an electronic teenage dream.
After that we have Riptide (Feat: Eric Shans of Phenotract / Fermion) is nothing at all like the 80’s detective show of the same name. Ominous, foreboding bass pulses. More acidic and grinding synths with lyrics that seem to want to make sense of these times which make little sense or none at all. Somber vocals that conjure up Ian Curtis or Andrew Eldritch.
“The state of madness
in overdrive holding out
underneath
A turn of the screws
Loosen the floods
and swim towards the riptides”
Lastly , I Am The Blue – Lidded Daughter Of Sunset. featuring Emilie Bienne) treats you to some Latin membrane drum beats and bass lines that travel Tubeway Army roads before veering off for more Depeche synth alleys and side streets.
The vocals on this track are bittersweet. They remind me of Denise Johnson who very recently passed and worked with Primal Scream. Props to the blue lidded daughter of the sunset.
Overall, what ensnared me about the new Jeremy Bastard EP is how the first and last song features soulful, muse like , higher register vocals. It’s like an oreo. The dark cookie wafers hold the feminine and the soulful space. The oreo filling are the second through the fifth tracks, that are between the wafers.
On the other hand the filling is not purely sugar sweet. Each song is different. The instrumentation varies in execution. However there is a cohesiveness that Jeremy Bastard achieves on all six songs that ties Everyone Is History/There Is no Memory together. It could be his production, choice of sounds, or both.
May I recommend this strongly to anyone who likes to dance. I recommend this to anyone who likes the amalgam of different genres. I despise the term shoegaze but I use it as a description. There are elements of shoegaze. In fact the tags from Bandcamp that describe this Jeremy Bastard EP are electronic, goth, house, industrial, and shoegaze. I say that’s a fair assessment however don’t get tied up with the titles.
In other words, the EP is all of these things but also not anyone thing at any one time. This is best heard on a good stereo / loud system.
If you like any of the synth stuff from late 70’s til now get on this. Picture , Gary Numan, Deadsy, early Cure. Also if you are a fan of Primal Scream , Weekend (Slumberland Records, San Francisco band) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5d0btl8OFno or DISOLVE’s aforementioned work, then you could discover a golden song or six. Jeremy Bastard, congrats on the new EP, I’ll be looking out for your stuff. Warrior on.