This Elegant Chaos: And so to PaddlePOP and the sweetness and light that is their 'When Pherry Meets Phil' CD EP. Jello Biafra(of The Dead Kennedys) once said that the reason he liked taking LSD was that it made him see things he hadn't seen since the nursery....and that's what makes PaddlePOP so special, they have a childlike(but NOT childish) quality that taps deep into the psyche and makes you feel all glowy and giddy....like you've eaten too many Splicers!

PaddlePOP are from Indonesia, where so much brilliant Indiepop is coming from these days, and manage to meld a Sarah Records essence with that wonderful post-punk feel of The Au Pairs, Mo-Dettes, The Delta 5 etc.
Opening track 'Orangewine' pretty much sums up what PaddlePOP seem to be all about, the bitter and the sweet....Nunu's female vocals working against Iskandar's male backing vocals create a beautiful contradiction.
'Phil In The Blanks' is all plucked guitar and lyrics about 'Your life is crossword puzzle' and features some deftly poignant backing vocals from Iskandar that make me smile and feel melancholic at the same time.
'Pherry's Wheel' has an almost jazzy/lounge feel(in a GOOD way) with some wonderful keyboards that brings to mind a lo-fi Camera Obscura. Nunu's vocals are so sweet that they intoxicate like the very Orangewine they sing about.
The CD ends with '3 Rounds Of Pleasure', "On Saturday afternoon//The music whispers through//I know you've waited for this moment" goes the lyrics accompanied by echoey guitars giving a cool C-86 vibe to the track.

PaddlePOP are completed by Faizul on bass and Oqi on guitars and keyboards and I love them to bits....if they'd been around when I was in my teens they would probably be in my Top 3 favourite bands of all time.

360º de Separación: Como no podía ser de otra forma, también encontramos en el catálogo del sello peruano a una banda asiática, de Singapur en esta ocasión, y es que parece que Asia cada vez viene produciendo más bandas a tener en cuenta. PaddlePOP señalan en su myspace una serie de referencias, la de Annemarie en primer lugar, y no es de extrañar, ya que son éstos los que parecen sonar cuando el disco de PaddlePOP empieza a escucharse, siendo ésta la inspiración más descarada en la música del grupo de Singapur. Obviamente estamos tratando con el lado más amable, despreocupado e inocente del Indie Pop, Orangewine suena a émulo de Annemarie, con unas voces que chocan en un principio por no parecer apropiadas para su conjunción, sin embargo al final uno cae en la cuenta de que todo es una cuestión personal, y más de uno encontrará encanto a esa aparente contraposición de voces chico/chica. Phil In The Blanks sigue el patrón marcado, música desenfadada y premeditadamente optimista, dando paso a Pherry’s Wheel que recuerda poderosamente a una banda que los asiáticos a buen seguro no habrán escuchado; los estupendos Moving Pictures, cuyas primeras grabaciones parecen haber sido inspiración aquí para dar lugar a nuestro tema favorito del Ep. Restando 3 Rounds Of Pleasure para completar un disco bien entretenido.