Paradise is an insistently catchy powerpop song – enigmatic, funny and melodic. Oscillating between the 2020s and the 1980s, fizzing between contemporary guitar pop and antique digital bleeps, it sings about the Twenty First Century through the voices of Twentieth Century pop futurists like Gary Numan and John Foxx. Numan and Foxx had a vision of a digital future. Swansea Sound have a vision of the way it all turned out.
The video is created from a TV performance of Paid Gadael Fynd by Welsh artist Malcolm Neon, another early pioneer of DIY electro pop. The grainy digital past swims past your eyes as the present-tense song invades your ears: a surreal juxtaposition.
Swansea Sound feature Huw Williams (The Pooh Sticks) and Amelia Fletcher (Heavenly) on lead vocals, with Rob Pursey, Bob Collins and Ian Button making the noises.
Swansea Sound recorded a BBC6Music Riley/Coe session in September. They are playing live in various parts of the UK this year, and in early 2024.
27 Oct 2023: BRIGHTON/HOVE, The Brunswick
28 Oct 2023: LONDON, The Water Rats
19 Jan 2024: TUNBRIDGE WELLS, Forum Basement
20 Jan 2024: FOLKESTONE, Twentieth Century Speedway
3 Feb 2024: SWANSEA, Bunkhouse
16 Feb 2024: GLASGOW, Mono
17 Feb 2024: EDINBURGH, Leith Depot
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