Rekindle
Rekindle – ‘Cold Life’
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Despite looking like a glam-rock vampire and having possibly the worst album cover of 2008, it turns out Rekindle churns out some fairly rad music.
Far from being the manufactured pop star his image might suggest, Rekindle is an independent artist who began making drum’n'bass and abstract intrumental hip hop in his Sydney bedroom during the mid 90s under the name ‘Raised By Wolves.’ His latest offering is ‘The Chandelier,’ which sees him relegate his art-rock aspirations to the margins in favour of the shameless glossy production of new wave, electro, and funk.
‘Cold Life’ is an epic, two-part new wave track from that album. Sounding like New Order covering Prince, the song is combines a funky guitar line with synth pads over an incessant rhythmic pulse and repetitive vocal turns. The falsetto-laden coda is more indicative of the rest of Rekindle’s output, which often strays too far into Justin Timberlake territory for my liking (see: ‘Ice Skating Girl,’ which appeared on a BBC Radio 2 compilation alongside LCD Soundsystem, The Rapture et al).
The album as a whole is likely to be more divisive than this one song, however, ‘Cold Life’ is a place where the lovers and haters can meet and dance together.
Oh wow, that album cover was pure gold. haha.