NEW ALBUM - OCTAVIA FREUD

'mood dancing' LP

LISTEN & BUY here

Octavia Freud's third album, 'Mood dancing' was written and recorded by Martin Andrews and Chris Allinson from Volcanic Shores during the summer lockdown of 2020. It is available for download on all digital platforms via DITTO and is available on limited edition gatefold CD in stores and can be ordered via Bandcamp.

Musically, it is a departure from previous Octavia Freud material as it is the first to feature Martin's natural voice on vocals. It retains a mixture of melodic pop sensibility and synth-based electronic experimentation and explores the desire for intimacy and abandon at a time of isolation and uncertainty.

Whilst the album may appear to be made up of superficial electronic pop, there is something much more substantial at work here. Delve deeper and what emerges is a set of songs that cover the key existential themes of our times. 'Cotton wool' pulls no punches in delivering a withering critique of modern politicians' attempts to avoid scrutiny; 'Video Call' takes a swipe at the Zoomification of all our lives and the demise of club culture, chastising a nation for turning their living rooms into board rooms rather than dance floors. 'When the panic sets in' pits a tense dialogue between perpetrator and victim, asking who is really in danger when retribution comes calling for previous state and personal abuses of power, when the world can no longer ignore that black lives matter. 'Street Art Boy' drags Covid-world listeners back to 1980s downtown NYC to hang out with artist Keith Haring and reflect on the similarities between our current pandemic and the emerging AIDS epidemic which eventually struck him down, with the haunting lyric, "the bruises I don't paint, they paint themselves". In between, songs stand up as mantras in the face of the spreading virus: 'La petite mort' seeks solace in human intimacy and the transcendent quality of sexual release as opposed to our current physical isolation and mortality.

Life, art, sex and death may not be uncommon themes to throw into pop songs, but Octavia Freud revels in exploring these through a varied palette of electronic sounds, acid bleeps and 808 grooves. As for the existential clues, they are there from the start with album opener, 'The beginning', which states all that is needed in these troubled times is for the people we love the most to stay close, rather than a capitulation to panic-buying and capitalism's fetish of false needs. By the closing track Octavia Freud is defiant, he is no longer able to hide his love from the world and will accept what comes his way in all of life's messy consequences.

'Mood dancing' is an album full of heart, it is brave enough to dance alone in the dark during an uncertain future but manages to reach out towards the light of our enduring human spirit. It is the hope that the new normal will be just as exciting and beautiful as the old normal, but most of all it is an album packed full of stories and tunes.