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Melbourne’s The Emergency return as a duo with two new disco cuts on New York’s Metal Postcard label. More delicate and spacey than anything on their excellent last album, this 7” finds Milo Kossowski and Morgan McWaters down the bloody vampire vibe in favour of a colder, more pneumatic kind of funk. It’s as fresh and breezy an effort as anything produced by the much hyped Italo-Disco school and, while all the signifiers of that movement are here – synthetic guitar, sequenced bass, arpeggiated synths – The Emergency never sound quotational or calculated like so many new club acts.
A-side ‘Spending Time’ is calypso robotics with handclaps and rubbery bass throbs. Shakers and electronics are distanced by reverb, and probing lyrics loop like a half-remembered thought; ‘Spend some cash / Waste some time / Life is a string of desires’. ‘Switch Me’ on the flip is a replicant love song with laserbeam synths, cowbells, obsession-fuelled vocals and an exploding second half. Packaged in a black and silver sleeve designed by Milo, this single is a classy outing by one our most futuristic sounding groups.
threethousand.com.auZan Rowe of Triple J Australia Says ...Melbourne two piece The Emergency have gone halfway around the world and back again to deliver their new single. The band have hooked up with a label based in New York, who are incidentally set to release new stuff from Dsico soon too (remember him?).
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaanyway, their new single is promising, but it's remix is even hotter. Heavy, grinding beats that travel for a good five minutes and keep you moving. And it comes from a fella from Melbourne too, Harris Robotis, proving that local electro is in a very healthy spot of late.
....More uber cool stereo waresfrom the New York based imprint responsible for those rather essential recent releases by Swoop Swoop and Sunny and Shia. Spending time' opens up a superbly crafted set of back to the old school early 80's club groove. An edgy almost monochrome montage of Spartan dub-tronics and detached white funk ... sounds to these ears like an early career Cabaret Voltaire in a head on mindtrip with the Shamen
'Switch me' is more extrovert in texture, minimalist retro groove shot through with an ice coldglacial fashion house cool that sounds like its been refined in late 70's Sheffield and hallmarked via a Manchester scene of the same era - well tasty if you ask me.
The Sunday Experience (UK) Singer Milo has an attractive monotone residing somewhere between Bernard Sumner and a mellow Joe Strummer, which suits the inverted pop-psychology culminating in 'Spending Time's "Life is a string of desires" lyrics, and the self-deprecating/ironic, "Switch me for you/who needs money when you've got looks?." ' ... This certainly has its charms.
Cyclic Defrost (Australia) Scene Magazine: The Emergency's debut album is nothing short of brilliant. The Emergency are reminiscent of an upbeat Suicide or Cabaret Voltaire. ..a sign that this band are leaps and bounds ahead of their coke snorting, vintage synth collecting, fashion driven rivals in Australia.
Better Propaganda.com The Emergency is lo-fi high-voltage electro rock and roll
The SoundLounge.com The Spectrum Deadly is one of the best albums I’ve heard this year. These robots deserve your support.
Monster Children: The Spectrum Deadly is perfect electro pop.
Inpress: The Emergency make cold and controlled android music that, at its roots, is also simple electro pop. Magic.
The Brag Magazine: Are you the type of person who could enjoy listening to The Human League's Dare album through a heavily distorted transistor radio? It's not something that you'll ever listen to when you're coming down, but it's a whole lot of fun on the way up.
Vice Magazine: I looked at myself in the mirror and wondered if I knew how to feel anymore. I didn't know how to feel about not knowing how to feel. I put on The Emergency and decided not to take a stance. Their synth pop syncopation and distorted vocals would happen anyway, like the fall of the wall or their points of reference before them; Telex, Human League, Kraftwerk. I stared back at the mirror, shaking my head. "Oh Cindy, Cindy, Cindy. Don't hate them because they are beautiful."
