Psychic of Orange - A Very Psychic Christmas

Tonight's album review is very, very special for many reasons. 1) i ran out of Christmas albums to talk about/share with you, but 2) my friend Ken and Psychic of Orange released a Christmas album today, so 3) i get to talk about an interesting group of music genres and say nice things about a fellow music maker.

If you're not at all familiar with hypnagogic pop, or glofi, or ____wave, or any of their subgenres, they generally fall under the umbrella concept of technological nostalgia. More specifically, they play with your memories of developing computer/audio technologies and pop culture from the 1980s and 90s by elevating consumer level equipment and output to an artistic medium while refusing to make overt statements about any supposed value in doing so. It's a post-ironic artform, is what i'm saying.

Critics and social philosophers often describe it as "post-elevator" music, because we only know how to define things as derivative forms. To my mind, the real defining characteristic is the refusal to say what is good or bad, serious or funny. It's like the clinical detatchment of Brechtian Epic Theater, or looking at life through the eyes of anti-depressants (yay me i snuck a System of a Down reference in there). Like how i find such giddy joy in singing songs from a female protagonist perspective as a deadpan bearded dude. The real point is that you're not being told how to feel, you actually feel that way because you have a personal connection to/memory of the media itself: cheap synths, autotune, drum machines, distorted guitars, falsetto, what have you. It's more like recycling/repurposing than imitation and it can be all the permutations of happy/sad/cheesy/heartfelt at the same time.

Well, Psychic of Orange brings an R&B flavor (with some truly authentic autotune) to the party. The covers of Eartha Kitt's "Santa Baby" and Mariah Carey's "All I Want For Christmas Is You" are delicious.

And let's talk about track 9, "presence." I don't know if it's on purpose or not (and don't tell me, Ken Fabian, because i don't want to know), but it's the doo-dooop-do-doo-doop part of "Hungry Like A Wolf" paired up with a metrically opposite version of the 3-note motive from "Boys of Summer" and the song is a pun on presence/present (which is basically the foundation of the universe this whole style exists inside). It's awesome. I love it. Thank you for making it.

Go check it out:
https://psychicoforange.bandcamp.com/album/a-very-psychic-christmas

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