Following many years of releasing sad and beautiful music under his own name, singer-songwriter Benjamin Shaw moved to Melbourne, Australia and started a new project under the moniker, Megadead. ‘Audio Visual Metro Computers’ is his second EP of the year and it follows a time of upheaval in his personal life…
‘Slowdead’ has a psych-yet-tender feel with spoken-word samples from a presentation about depression and fuzzy glitches battling against a backdrop of melodic and experimental Public Service Broadcasting-style tones. 96 seconds of ‘Maximum Enjoyment’ follows and this washed-up electronic contains instructions for using sound equipment correctly, while ‘Out of the Woods’ veers between chamber pop to futuristic agit-rock – with some jazz interludes, naturally – throughout its eminently danceable five and a half minutes.
‘What a Difference’ takes the EP into the world of kaleidoscopic trip-hop with Avalanches-style quote of ‘clearly, you need some help’ before the EP comes to an end with the smooth and soulful sadpop sound of ‘Breaking Open the Head’. This piece has synthesized vocals (‘I tried. I tried. I won’t break anything baby, now’ before gliding to a natural conclusion of fading nature sounds…
Megadead’s latest EP conjures up the sound of 2020 – powerful, erratic and gorgeous…
