Red Cell (Sweden) – King and Queen in Ghost Town (single)

Red Cell’s take on themselves is “deluxe electronic pop/synth” and I couldn’t find an argument against that self-portrait even if I wanted to.

It’s as upper class and exclusive as a handbag from Louis Vuitton; a bottle of 1982 Chateau Lafite Rothschild, or a box of chocolates from Fortnum & Mason.

The last time we caught up with Stefan Aronsson and Jimmy Skeppstedt they were applying intense scrutiny to Hollywood and its machinations, warts and all.

This time, in ‘King and Queen in Ghost Town’ they proclaim the value of stoicism and the stiff upper lip when the odds are against you and you can’t see the way to victory. Their advice is to embrace the chaos rather than flee it, and crown yourself king and queen of the jungle that modern day society can be.

Perhaps we should make that our motto here in the banana republic of the UK?

Or they might consider it in the US where the lyric “We break, we fix / we build it up, we tear it down,” is emblematic of what’s being going down in the last couple of weeks in the Land of the Free, courtesy of Don and his techie sidekick as they engage in industrial level disruption.

‘King and Queen in Ghost Town’ starts off with a very apt Terminator-style synth bass beat driving it forward. The Cyborgs are in the house and by the time we get into the anthemic outro – a staple of Red Cell’s songs – they’ve all found a synthesiser and formed an orchestra.

Then it plays out to a random melody that sounds as if it could be a 21^st century pinball machine having an orgasm.

Pardon me for repeating myself but when I was a young lad in the 1980s I listened to this sort of stuff all day, from the myriad of UK bands and soloists cooking it up. Hand on heart; ‘King and Queen in Ghost Town’ would have fitted into that period perfectly.

It seems Red Cell has been nominated for a prestigious Gaffa-priset award, and if you want to see them live you can do so in Sundsvall and Stockholm in March (see their socials for details).

Form an orderly queue please.

Find them on:

Website: https://redcell.nu/