King Post Kitsch – Modern Times
Words: Gareth O’Malley
Charlie Ward is your veritable one-man band – at least for this release. A regular poster of comments on the blog (just by the way), he records under the name of King Post Kitsch, sometimes with the help of others, and other times without. The second track from the self-titled debut EP – due out next week – ‘Modern Times’ grabs the listener from the off. Minimal is not the word, folks: there is very little meat on the arrangement here; piano, guitar, bass. That’s it. And it works really well. Which is rather surprising when the main hook relies on discordant piano. It has quite the jarring effect, coming crashing in after a simple percussion loop gets things going.
The lyrics serve as a bitter protest against, you guessed it, modern times. ‘I hang myself on a suit and tie,’ Ward sings, ‘not that I would die to wear a tie’. They add to the feeling of unease that this song provokes. Coming across as something Cold War Kids-esque (think ‘Welcome to the Occupation’ off last year’s ‘Loyalty to Loyalty’), it is a fine starting point for Mr. Ward. ‘Alaska’ and ‘Fante’s Last Stand’ join ‘Modern Times’ to make up the EP. If this track, which is an uncomfortable yet thrilling listen, is anything to go by, it should be something rather special.
MFM @ HYPEM
