Strange Talk Traffics In Anthemic Dance

By Tankboy in Arts & Entertainment on May 22, 2014 4:30PM

Photo by Shervin Lainez

Strange Talk hails from Melbourne and creates the sort of dance rock hybrid their forbearers Cut Copy are well known for. Their debut Cast Away is an exuberant cheer of an album. Sythesizers shoot forth like a new millennial laser light show and the songs swoosh in and carry you along in their euphoric embrace. Close your eyes and envision yourself dancing inside some huge gemstone with thousands of other smiling faces bobbing along beside you while bathed in rainbow beams and streamers coated in glitter. That's pretty much what Strange Talk sounds like.

Even more impressive is how sneaky the music ends up keeping you in its grasp, like a dance floor boa constrictor. Upon first listen the contents may seem a little slight but as the album winds on you feel it bringing you ever more tightly in to its grasp. In an age where this writer often deletes an album from his mobile device after giving it enough spins to properly write about it, Cast Away is still holding on strong to my flash drive.

Stream the album below, but if you only have time for one or two songs we recommend "Young Hearts" or "Morning Sun." The band is in town tonight to play Schubas and this comes after a high profile string of dates opening for The Sounds so this is a great chance to see a huge sounding band in a great sounding but super cozy room.

Strange Talk plays with Future Beats and Black Bear/Brown Bear tonight, May 22, at Schubas, 3159 N. Southport, 9 p.m., $10 advance / $12 doors, 18+