Data Romance - New Waves

This Canadian duo fashion music that walks the tightrope between dark, chilly electronics and modern mainstream pop sounds. That’s not to say they’re anywhere near the LOLpop of the likes of LMFAO or Bruno Mars, nor are they writhing in underground musical dungeons like Gazelle Twin or Salem. Instead Data Romance occupy a more ear-friendly middle ground with enough edge to cut through the soft brie anti-music blandness of most of the mainstream.

There’s a heavy modern soundtrack feel to some of Data Romance’s songs and in fact they’ve already gone the whole hog and recorded one for a film called Life Cycles. For comparisons think of the previously blogged Jess Mills, Alpines, Paper Crows or the now UK top 20 conquering Delilah and you’ll be in the right zone.

Data Romance’s music is so utterly modern it could be held up in educational establishments as an example of exactly where slightly leftfield pop music was at in 2011. Their cover of Cole Porter’s jazz standard Ev’rytime We Say Goodbye seems to have been studying James Blake’s Limit To Your Love – the vocoder reliance, the sparse minimalism, and the quiet moment of reflection halfway through. On the other hand it could be Diana Vickers masquerading in a different zone, bidding for second-go credibility. Then there’s The Deep with its almost obligatory creepy video. Caped ghoulish dancers that could be out of a Tolkien novel add a sense of evil to this zombie-electropop, like a low budget black and white version of Michael Jackson's Thriller. It’s all very of the moment, but then that isn’t a criticism – just as a band sounding retro isn’t necessarily a bad thing either – as long as the music moves you.

Data Romance are Ajay Bhattacharyya (try saying that when you’ve had a few beers) and Amy Kirkpatrick. They first got together in 2009 and originally recorded and performed under the title Names, which must be one of the hardest band names to find on Google ever. Thankfully they changed that and started pulling the strands together with a self-titled EP which was released in June. The next one, Ashes, is due for release in early 2012. Spark (streaming below) will be on that EP and is available for now as a free download from the bands website (use the link above).

Spark by Data Romance (official)

Ev'ry Time We Say Goodbye by Data Romance (official)