Australian musician David West is a peerless pop experimentalist, in the last decade capable of moving, first in the native Perth, through a plethora of indie bands (Total Control, Lace Curtain, Burning Sensation, Whalehammer), then relocated to New York currently member of Liberation (new wave, synth-pop), Rank/Xerox (post-punk) and Rat Columns, not to mention three solo albums under his belt.
It’s right of his guitar-pop project Rat Columns, with the collaboration Perth‘s local cohorts Louis Hooper (keyboards), Amber Gempton (bass/vox) and Chris Cobilis (drums) as well as musical wunderkind Cohen Bourgault guesting on violin, we’re going to talk about and precisely of the forthcoming 7″ vinyl EP due to be released for the brand new single club subscription series from the legendary, nearly three decades old, Bay Area based Slumberland Records.
Recorded during the same sessions in Guildford, Western Australia, for last year excellent third album “Candle Power” through Upset! The Rhythm imprint, the title track “Sometimes We’re Friends” has been previewed in these days.
“Sometimes We’re Friends” is an intriguing and bittersweet guitar-driven pop gem about a man who moves in with a girl because he has nowhere else to go, beautifully evolving over eerie keybords lines, pulsating bass and soaring crystalline jangle guitar arpeggios, the intense emotional vocal interplay between the dreamy and charming male with the innocent and lost female counterpart fully convey all the deep feelings of loneliness, longing and sadness of a unrequited love.
The new single shows once again David West‘s masterful skills at deconstructing and reassembling a variety of different pop elements of the past with a unique fresh and modern approach resulting in a unpredictable, refined and utterly captivating pop songs.
