Despite its status as the industry’s shibboleth, claiming authenticity in the boss-eyed magpie art that is pop music is a mug’s game. Dress it up how you like, the form is a movable feast: pick the bits you want, put your hat on it and you too could be an original.
So, there’s nothing new in Wendy Bevan’s cold-wave minimalist synth soundscapes, punctuating post-punk basslines, or gothic theatricality. Nor will dizzily shotgunning adjectives together with hyphens make it so. Whether it’s for you or not depends on your liking for the sub-cultures that emerged when punk sensibilities smashed face first into early 80’s synth stylings – something Sheffield knows a bit about.
Given that Siouxsie Sioux and the pioneers of the genre are but a click away in the perma-culture of streaming that’s a tricky question to answer. Over a certain age, you’ve almost certainly heard it before. But that’s the point of pop: at this stage of the musical generation game it’s how you do it on any given day that matters. In that context, this set functions perfectly as an eerie dramatic time-machine capable of transporting you back to a 1980’s milieu it so obviously references.
7/10 AJ
