RRUSSELL BELL – EP REVIEW


Rrussell Bell – Like-A-Human EP 
Rrussell Bell - Like-A-Human EP

Release Date: Out Now

Having covered Rrussell Bell’s debut solo single recently, I was excited to receive the full EP from whence that single came. Opening up with the title track and debut single, ‘Like-A-Human’ is still an epic and urgent slice of 80s inspired electro-pop that drops you right in to a neon lit landscape full of wonder and futuristic technology. ‘Haunted by You’ continues the theme but with a darker edge and a sense of foreboding in the deadpan vocals that would make this perfect for a Ridley Scott vision of a dystopian future or a Trent Reznor directed movie.

The woozy synths of ‘We Drown In Bars’ reminds me of Visage but the melodies are arranged in a more middle-east sequence and Bell’s vocals are more akin to Spandau Ballet with a wonderfully subtle vocal effect making this sound like a cyborg Tony Hadley. The final track of this collection, ‘Cold Zero’ has an ambitious and cinematic energy about with galloping drums and searing melodies creating the kind of tune you would expect to hear on a big budget 80s Hollywood production staring at least one robot or alien and a bunch of implausibly plucky kids. What Rrussell Bell does so well is take a bunch of cultural reference points and influences, mash them together with some genuinely unique flourishes and come out the other side with something fresh and exciting yet entirely accessible. It’s alchemy, I tells ya, pure alchemy.


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