Ford & Lopatin
Thu 31 Mar 2011
Trying to live in the future
A blitzkrieg of rolling ’80s softcore synth pop with breezy vocals and chopping drums, Ford & Lopatin is super slick. Previously known as Games (they had to change their name for legal reasons), their music at first comes across as blatantly uncool in its earnestly clear precision. But there’s a sense of dark urgency lurking somewhere deep beneath the ecstatically wired and pedantic melodies, which makes Ford & Lopatin not only unique, but hyper enjoyable. Their throbbing and gyrating tunes bend and crush with an almost mathematical automation, gliding with ease but always shape-shifting. It’s a confusing mix of sounds to say the least. But something in the fucked up oddball overtness of it appeals. Like a forgotten ’80s anthem playing on a shitty radio in a Lamborghini car yard.
So this is what childhood friends Daniel Lopatin of Oneohtrixpointnever and Joel Ford from Tigercity do in their time away from their other projects. The pair, who met in sixth grade, are releasing their full-length album Channel Pressure (mixed by Guillermo Scott Herren from Prefuse 73) on 7 June via their Mexican Summer imprint, Software. I’m looking forward to hearing the highly conceptualised album, that’s said to create a “futuristic narrative” involving a fictionalised record industry run by a super computer, a teenage anti-hero and violent robo-jocks, according to the label. The site has a few choice quotes from Joel –
“The main character is a kid named Joey Rogers, he’s a teenager who sleeps with his TV on and starts getting subliminal messages telling him to rob a music equipment chain store. The story reflects on our own anxiety over music as teenagers. The confusion surrounding music when you’re that age – the feeling of going to Guitar Center and being overwhelmed by the gigantic Aerosmith poster glaring down at you.”
‘Emergency Room’ is the first song they’ve released under their new name, check it out below and follow their blog for tour dates and further info.
Ford & Lopatin- Emergency Room: MP3
Ford & Lopatin- Everything Is Working: MP3
April 7th, 2011 at 10:04 pm
Hey, awesome.
Have been recently playing a lot of ‘Games’ due to a friend’s recommendation and had forgotten what their new band name was. Easy enough to Google, I suppose. But never got around to it.
And now I stumble upon this!
So, thank you for reminding me.
x