Xmas Advent [December 13th] :: Smile Down Upon Us

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Keiron Phelan of Smile Down Upon Us recommends… “Move With the Wildpalms” by Tim Ten Yen

“One reason for this selection is that Tim Ten Yen’s album ‘Everything Beautiful Reminds Me Of You’, which contains this song, has recently been released. So it’s still fresh in my rather unremarkable memory. But the main reason is that it reminds me of everything I actually liked about 1980. I’m not, by and large, a great one for nostalgia, but this track has me remembering my mascara-ed, asymmetrical fringed foppishness with fondness, rather than wincing with embarassment. Which is as it should be. Regardless, this is a hell of a track. A touch of early Kraftwerk and a soupçon of Travelogue-era Human League, filterered through Tim’s slightly absurdist persona and pseudo-karaoke style, elegantly removes the posturings of the original period and doubles the fun! Sexy, too. Quite why the track isn’t titled ‘Move With the Ocean’ (as that comprises pretty much the entire lyric) is a mystery understood only by Tim.”

Smile Down Upon Us are made up of London-based Keiron Phelan and David Sheppard and Tokyo-based artist moomLooo, who has never met the Londoners. Their self-titled debut was put together entirely over email and is out now on Static Caravan.

Smile Down Upon Us on MySpace