Red Square – The Intelligentsia

I don’t know that much about Red Square. The band consists of Neil Gauthier and Josh Kidd, while Stan Nakanishi contributes guitar on some tracks. The sticker on my review copy mentions ‘synth-industrial’ as the musical style that is practised here. The first song, ‘All for him’, is quite nice and probably the best song. It’s a poppy synth tune with a catchy melody, (at times slightly distorted) male and some soft female vocals. The sparse guitars for the industrial element. The next track, ‘The other side’, is more guitar-based, and appeals to me less.

On the other tracks the band continues this variation between poppy synth tunes (a little like early Depeche Mode) and more midtempo crossover pieces, which I don’t like that much. Songs I appreciated the most were ‘Final solution’ and ‘Used to’. Though the music of Red Square is certainly not bad, I’m not entirely convinced yet. There aren’t enough memorable compositions on this demo, and the band doesn’t show enough special or unique elements to discern itself. Most synthpop songs are a bit too soft for my ears, and I did not like the more industrial-type tracks. But luckily there were also a few bright spots which hinted at potential.

artist: Red Square
label: Dual Monarchy
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