After nearly six years of running ANBAD, I think I have hit upon an ideal vetting tool for new bands. It is (literally) not rocket science.
It works like this:
- Find and play a long, varied and killer playlist of Creation Records songs;
- Intersperse this playlist with ANBAD submissions;
- If they don’t fit with the playlist: GOOD
- If they do fit in with the playlist: GOOD
- If they sound a bit like they could be or might not be influenced by the songs in the playlist – you know, because this or that sound hasn’t been copied for a while, and maybe it would go well with the charity shop clothes that the band carefully ‘sourced’ on their gap year: REJECT
New bands: if you’re lucky, your song will pop up next to one of the 18 Wheeler songs.
Luckily for Trimalchio, his brand of up-and-at-’em synthpop poked out of the morass of fey indie jangling, and lo, here is Nepenthe as a result.
Nepenthe is slight, it’s true, but it’s also a neat display of Trimalchio’s way with creating efficient and slightly creepy melodies.
And let’s face it, within the context of Creation Records’ early output, creating slight and simple songs is about as high an achievement as one could hope for. Lounge music for tomorrow.