As someone who has a day job that is involved in the design and construction of buildings, I’ve always been fascinated by how the architecture of a music venue affects a gig – from the sound to the band’s performance to the audience reaction. So, when I read that electronic pop duo Night Games are due to play a show in the unusual venue of the gothic St Pancras Clock Tower in London next week I immediately booked a ticket. The fact that the band have now released a string of excellent and seemingly always improving electronic pop singles is a bonus.
The latest, Replicant is produced by Bryan Wilson (no, not that Brian Wilson – that really would be something) and sounds like the band have swallowed chill pill a tiny bit early on a Friday night when they are still out raving. Yes, it’s basically an understated banger. Is that even possible? It evidently is.
Tickets for Night Games clock tower gig on 2nd February are available from Dice (click here).
Night Games - Replicant
If Suffocate by Night Games seems familiar to you then it’s probably because this song has lurked in the shadows of the past – in fact a quick check on Hype Machine reveals that a couple of sites (including the ever reliable Just Music I Like - the blog where I first discovered Night Games) wrote about the song in 2014 and 2015. However, it appears somewhere along the line Suffocate disappeared and has now resurfaced, giving a second opportunity for those (most) of us who missed it first time round.
Suffocate isn’t a simple pop song by any stretch of the imagination. It’s way deeper and out there than that. Its closest cousin would probably be something from FKA Twigs, although Suffocate sounds less disconnected, the sounds are less scattered and there’s a more of an understandable structure to what’s going on. In fact Suffocate is a little less try hard than Twigs, but it’s still full of wonderful mystery and oddness, Constance's voice going from a breathy whisper to stretching for the stars over its duration.
Like all of my favourite pop music right now, you’re not going to find Suffocate storming up the Radio 1 playlist, it’s way too leftfield and experimental for that; and it’s all the better for it.
Night Games - Suffocate
Where does a band get its name from? I mean, take Night Games. Did they read Anna Krien’s book (Night Games: Sex, Power and a Journey into the Dark Heart of Sport) and take inspiration from that? Or was it some reference to past memories of childhood sleepover parties and things they did to entertain themselves there? Murder in the dark perhaps? Or is it some sort of reference to the atmosphere of their music, playful but dark sounding? Or was it just that The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, Butthole Surfers and Kiss The Anus Of A Black Cat had all already been taken and so they thought 'Night Games, that'll do.'
Whatever the reason, the London pairing (maybe they could have just called themselves Connie and Paul and kept it simple) have got a rather splendid synth-soft new song out called Faithless. “You’ve won me over with lies before,” Connie sings before admitting that she’s coming back for more. More of what we’re not quite sure. Maybe she’s singing about the UK voting public and their appetite for the Conservative party? Or maybe the name of the band gives us a saucy hint?
Night Games - Faithless
This new London based duo came to us via an excellent post from Leigh at Just Music I Like blog, which not only dealt with Night Games’ music but some brief thoughts on the fickle characteristics of music sites who seem more concerned with a ‘I’ll scratch your back if you scratch mine’ approach to what they feature by getting a premiere on their site than anything else.
Thankfully Just Music I Like (and Breaking More Waves) isn’t that sort of site. The bottom line from Breaking More Waves perspective is we will post and write about the music (if we like it) irrespective of if every blog under the sun has already written about it or if nobody else is writing about it; the offer of a premiere is pointless with us. It might be how the industry works, but we’re not part of that industry.
So on that note and before this turns into a blog / web rant on the ethics of blogging, let’s return to Night Games. There are three things we particularly like about them.
1. They look like a couple of young über-cool architects who have just nipped out of their sexy minimalist workpad to explore their creativity a little further by creating music as well as spaces. Call us pretentious but this is a look we can agree with a lot. Sure, this reason is not about the music, but then anyone who is a fan of pop will know that any music writer who says “it’s all about the music and nothing else” is usually in denial. As we’ve suggested before, you can usually start by asking music writers who say this why they feature pictures of the bands along with the articles they write (assuming they do), if as they say it’s only about the music.
2. They’re singer is called Constance. This is a great name (especially if shortened to Connie). The sort of name we’d give to our daughter. Oh, we already have.
3. They make good music. Remember that? That’s key. Anything else is ultimately fluff (but sometimes that fluff – context, discussions around the subject, humour, education – is important to us, that’s why we put it on the blog, it’s our blog not yours etc).
They have two songs on their Soundcloud. Two pieces of exquisitely created electronic pop with sumptuous soft textures. The stand out of the two is the slow burner, Signals, which smoulders with a lonesome late night cabaret club moodiness. “He’s sending signals, signals to me, cannot work out what they mean,” Constance purrs, her vocal coating the song with a calming creamy effect, her tone capable of softly hitting the heights but also exploring the earthier depths. Consider us smitten.
Night Games - Signals
