Cosmic Armchair

Channelnewsasia.com / TODAY Newspaper, 28 October 2010. By Kevin Mathews

Synthpop, aka synthesiser-based pop music, has never quite been the genre of choice for most Singapore bands.

Back in the ’90s, local synthpop pioneers Corporate Toil even suffered the ignominy of being heckled and booed by rock fans during a live performance. But things have changed.

Take Cosmic Armchair, for example. The synthpop duo, going by their monikers Cosmic Jane and Cosmic Ben, came together two years ago after meeting at the NUS Electronic Music Lab. They recently performed at this year’s Baybeats Festival and released a second EP, “A Second Look”.

Synthpop was “a natural choice” for the duo, but they stressed that they are “also influenced by current music like trance, progressive and future-pop”.

These influences are evident on the new EP. The opening track “Conversations” has strong trance elements and an interesting voice-over from actor friend Gemia Foo.

According to the duo, “the track is based on a conversation between a couple whose relationship was breaking down”.

Elsewhere, “Don’t Leave Me Here”, a melancholic electro-ballad, is, Jane said, about “how different people faced death”.

“It’s something all of us have to deal with one day, and also the question of what lies beyond,” she explained.

Despite the strengths of their music, Cosmic Armchair know that they’re not exactly a household name yet.

“As an electronic pop or synthpop band, people are still trying to decide where we fit in,” said Jane.

The duo has so far played gigs alongside death metal, industrial bands, electronic shoegaze and electro pop artists as “the local electronic pop scene is small but growing”.

Nevertheless, they said: “At all these gigs we found new fans from people who also enjoyed these other genres.”

Still, Cosmic Armchair is working on its full length album for 2011, and looking to collaborate with other musicians and remixers.

“We want to take our music as far as we can go and reach as many people as we can – starting from Singapore, and going out to the rest of the universe.”

Cosmic Armchair’s “A Second Look” is out now. - TODAY NEWSPAPER AND CHANNELNEWSASIA.COM

Local electronic music duo Cosmic Armchair, comprising singer/songwriter Cosmic Jane and produce/arranger Cosmic Ben has just released an EP entitled “A Different View”.

The album constst of 5 electro-pop tracks which sound more like a cross betwen 90s synth-pop, trance and new wave. Although the songwriting in the album is pretty solid, with some memorable tunes, the vocalist sounded a little too hollow. The mastering too could have been better by boosting the lows to create the energy that electronic music is known for.

That aside, this album is probably one of the better local releases this year. The track titled “Grey” is probably their best. It sounds like what you would get if you were to mix Depeche Mode with The Birthday Massacre (without the guitars) - Navigator Magazine

It is a Singapore Special, as home-grown musicians unveil a batch of original releases that traverse range and emotions

The Straits Times (Singapore), December 3, 2010 Friday, by Yeow Kai Chai, sound bites

How’s your day?, asks actress Gemia Khoo at the start of Conversation, the second track off Cosmic Armchair’s second EP.

Hers is a distinct Singapore accent that provides a smart and jolting counterpoint to the band’s brand of Euro electro blips.

Elsewhere, references like Depeche Mode and a neo-revival act La Roux are fair, although the Cosmic duo prefer smoothness over anything too industrial or apocalyptic.

The band are made up of Cosmic Jane and Cosmic Ben, who prefer to keep their real identities secret, like superheroes.

If anything, Cosmic Jane plays Everything But The Girl’s Tracey Thorn to Cosmic Ben’s Ben Watt, in a man-woman interplay of subtle emotion and dance rapture.

Take Your Home is the piece de resistance here, with Jane’s calm confession over Ben’s incremental build-up of micro beats and synth rain. - THE STRAITS TIMES

I have to admit that I’m not a stupendously rabid fan of dance/trance music — I like my break beats, Above & Beyond, Massive Attack, some lounge, and … well, little else, actually. However, Singaporean artiste Cosmic Armchair’s album has left me reconsidering my position.

For one thing, it reminds me of Robert Miles’ work in the late 1990s. You know, stuff like One & One — so call me nostalgic for them good ol’ days, but so what? I know some don’t consider dance music as “music” but quibble on someone else’s parade. Gem tracks: Frontier, Here and After, and Grey. - TODAY Newspaper