It is a Singapore Special, as home-grown musicians unveil a batch of original releases that traverse range and emotions
The Straits Times (Singapore), December 3, 2010 Friday, by Yeow Kai Chai, sound bites
How’s your day?, asks actress Gemia Khoo at the start of Conversation, the second track off Cosmic Armchair’s second EP.
Hers is a distinct Singapore accent that provides a smart and jolting counterpoint to the band’s brand of Euro electro blips.
Elsewhere, references like Depeche Mode and a neo-revival act La Roux are fair, although the Cosmic duo prefer smoothness over anything too industrial or apocalyptic.
The band are made up of Cosmic Jane and Cosmic Ben, who prefer to keep their real identities secret, like superheroes.
If anything, Cosmic Jane plays Everything But The Girl’s Tracey Thorn to Cosmic Ben’s Ben Watt, in a man-woman interplay of subtle emotion and dance rapture.
Take Your Home is the piece de resistance here, with Jane’s calm confession over Ben’s incremental build-up of micro beats and synth rain.
For more information, go to www.cosmicarmchair.com
