Seattle’s Medical Records celebrates 5 years of “classic synth, cosmic disco, wave (cold/new), and future music” with their upcoming 2xLP Synesthesia – The First Five Years, due out June 11th. It just so happens that this will be the 50th release from the label’s already impressive catalog, and while the first three album sides will feature a “best of” collection of reissues from artists like Lou Champagne System, Gay Cat Park, and Disco Volante, the final side finds some of Medical Records’ like-minded contemporaries, such as Roladex and ((PRESSURES)), covering their back catalog favorites.
Here, Seattle synth-pop duo Roladex does a bang up job with “We R“, from the Italian husband/wife team Chrisma. Back in 2010, with the label just off the ground after reissues from Deutsche Wertarbeit, and Alexander Robotnick, Medical followed up by reissuing Chrisma’s first two LPs, 1977’s Chinese Restaurant, and 1979’s Hibernation. “We R” can be found on the latter, and it’s one of the pair’s dark gems. Mixing a punk sonic attitude with future forward instrumentation, on this cut Maurizio Arcieri and Christina Moser balance a sexually charged tension with tongue and cheek lines like, “If you are willing/You can hook us to the ceiling”. Roladex is perfectly suited to cover this material, and Elyssa Dianne and Tyler Jacobsen trade it’s playful lines with cool nonchalance, while using their expertise with analogue instrumentation to re-render it’s vintage sound.
