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Colin's Godson — In Silicon Heaven
(Puzzled Aardvark no#, 2017, CD)

by Henry Schneider, Published 2017-10-06

In Silicon Heaven Cover art

Looking at the thread running through this Glasgow band’s releases since 2015, you will see a story line of Colin’s Godson’s (mis)adventures. In their last installment, The Timely Demise of Colin’s Godson, Colin’s Godson passed away. Now with their fifth album, Colin’s Godson in Silicon Heaven, we are treated to a vision of Colin’s Godson afterlife in a heaven — or is it hell? — of obsolete technology from the 80s and 90s. This is a fun album of twelve Britpop and New Wave songs. In line with the plot, the band restricted themselves by playing obsolete and cheesy electronics. They recorded the entire album on a Casio SK-1 purchased in 1991. We are treated to tales of love, loss, obsolete Nokia cell phones, LaserQuest, a Sinclair ZX81, Amstrad mini-computers, video games, etc. all of which come together in a vague metaphor about the inevitable decay of our own fleeting existence. These are upbeat, happy tunes with a variety of musical touchpoints. The New Wave songs like “Teletext” have an Ultravox vibe. “(Stuck in a World of) WarCraft” is a gothic song sounding like something Voltaire might have written. And some of the lyrics are quite deft. In “SciFiWiFiHiFi” Colin's Godson is trapped in 1993 with the lyric “the coolest thing I own and I control it with my phone.” The New Wave dance tune “Twitterbot” says “you’re not real, but I like you a lot, you’re my Twitterbot.” And the catchy tune that closes the disc, “Built in Obsolescence,” ends with the recognizable synthesized computer voice from the 90s trying to spell obsolete, but slowly decaying and never quite finishing. If you are a child of the 80s/90s you will appreciate all of the references to the technological toys you grew up with and discarded for something new. If you are a vinyl junky, be on the lookout for the LP when it hits the streets in November. Right now the record plants are backlogged with the Bowie reissues and labels with small runs are put on the back burner.

Filed under: New releases, 2017 releases

Related artist(s): Colin's Godson

 

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