Paradox

Item: New Devotion
Author: Steven S. Baldwin

New Devotion

(2000)

Reviewed by Steven S. Baldwin

Discogs Bandcamp Apple Music TIDAL Spotify YouTube Music

Label Seeing Ear RecordsThe Phantom Tollbooth1999

darkwave new wave synth pop

Do you remember Eighties' new wave music with a certain fondness? Do "Tainted Love" by Soft Cell and "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me" by the Human League still rank among your all time favorites? If so, boy, do I have good news for you! Paradox specializes in a pleasant, peppy, retro-Eighties sound.

An obscure little label called Seeing Ear Records offers a number of dance music bands, and Paradox is among their current roster. Primarily a keyboard-oriented band, Paradox sports not one but two keyboardists, Ralph and Steve, who also double in the roles of bass and guitar players as needed. Rounding out the trio is Lissa who performs as the sometime front-woman and backing vocalist with her pleasant but indistinct voice. Ralph's occasional lead vocal tracks are more akin to those you would find on a Dead Artists Syndrome album, but not quite as deep and foreboding. Together the three of them have woven a rich tapestry one might call sanctified retro-gothic-dance-pop.

The keyboard sounds and programming effects range from largely vintage vibes reminiscent of older Depeche Mode and their imitators to more current dance/rave styles. Guitar work is fleetingly offered at best, and usually relegated to atmospheric background noise. A drum machine rules the day. There are some interesting samples and curious gothic touches here and there--most notably on segue-way tracks "Procession" and "Interlude," which feature Phantom of the Opera organs and mumbling monks. However, the ancestry for all these tracks is more dance pop related than the offspring of gloom band pioneers like The Cure and Sisters of Mercy. With its Nine Inch Nails' aggression, the title track not only has some real zip, it is both the most contemporary of the songs and a real highlight.

Reacting primarily to the proliferation of pagan thinking in today's culture, principal songwriter Ralph Dix has penned a plethora of songs dealing with the virtues of the One True God. Although lyrics are not included, judging from the liner notes the band is making a stand against witchcraft and other false religions, while masquerading in a more Christianized version of gothic trappings. Their strong stance is summarized in this poetic declaration:

Devotio moderna:

Woe to all Satyr's, Chimaera's, Lamia, Rephaim, Incubi and all the Watchers of Eden who have perverted the ways of the sons and daughters of Eve, for the day is coming when the Knights of the Temple shall seek you out and slay your spirits, so that you may be bound hand and foot and cast in Tartaros until the day of Consummation...all of you who serve Azazel shall be recompensed for all your iniquity...

Unfortunately, the bulk of the album's lyrics are much more straightforward and simplistic and not at all as compelling as Dix's included statement of faith.

The packaging is a curious mix of both well done and extremely flattering photos with some equally embarrassing ones, indicating that the care that went into this indie project was wildly inconsistent. As an added bonus, four tracks from a previous album, Subculture, are also included.

Although Paradox's music would have been cutting-edge back in the Eighties, today it just sounds mostly antiquated and no match for current techno pioneers like Prodigy and the Chemical Brothers. However, a good time can still be had by all in these dance hall ditties, and demons, whether they are wearing their skinny-ties or not, aren't invited.

2 tocks