Antigone is a name you won’t forget if you are a loyal reader of EQ. She’s sassy, smart, stylish and most of all, she’s a woman in who is putting out some of the best electronica that you will hear in the coming months ahead in 2008. Amidst all the other electronic divas who shined brightly in the spotlight this year (ie: Roisin Murphy / Robyn), Antigone brings a little something different to the table and that is why we have named her our ‘EQ Of The Year 2007’.
Our musical love affair with Antigone did rightly start with Darren Hayes mentioning her in one of his blogs this past year. Darren and EQ have been, for the most part, on par with our musical tastes, so going to check out Antigone on MySpace was a task that couldn’t have been any easier for us. What we were pleased to find was a lush blend of electronica that we haven’t quite heard before. To say it made our ears perk up is a huge understatement. Her sound is a little left-field, it’s a little disco, it’s a little house, it’s a tad burlesque but most of all – it clearly works. Having perfected her triumphant command of house music as part of the group Etherfox with electronic maestro Justin Shave, Antigone knows how to deliver tunes to get people dancing in the sweatiest of discos worldwide. Combine that with her thought-provoking lyrics from her new solo material, you are bound to easily fall under a trance from the moment you press play.
Having only released one track thus far in the way of the the whirly and very danceable ‘Funky Dancers’ (download it here), this track sets firmly in our list of top tracks for 2007 and we literally could not stop listening to it on MySpace this year. It didn’t matter that we had to be online and logged in to actually hear it – it was that good. After seeing and reviewing Antigone’s debut London performance at the Soho Revue Bar – we were convinced that Antigone had that special something that set her apart from all the other acts we were closely following this year.
Some might argue that it’s a little premature to big-up an artist who hasn’t even put out the album yet and has only just released one single, and that certainly is a fair remark to make, but with Antigone, much like her music, all the rules are thrown out the window. Take one listen to her tracks ‘Promiscuity’ and ‘Uberwoman’ when the album is released and you will understand what we keep going on about. Nothing will prepare you for the disco triumphant track that is ‘More Man Than Man’ and the luxuriating and sparkly gems that are ‘Mirror’ and ‘Hello Yellow’.
Some of you probably will be quite fickle with Antigone’s music and that’s ok. It’s not the type of music that is going to be embraced by the Timbaland mainstream sound that dominates pop today. However for those of you that appreciate pop music which thinks outside the box like Bjork, Siobhan Donaghy, Kate Bush, Garbage, Tori Amos and even Madonna to a certain extent, Antigone’s brand of electronica will surely please your sensory pulses to an elevated sense of bliss. If she breaks out into the wide open it wouldn’t surprise us. If she remains the dedicated and hard-working/no-compromising indie songstress she is now – it’s all good. Antigone can’t really do no wrong.
Hearty congratulations to Antigone – you won us over with your brilliance and mighty tunes and that is why you will reign royale goddess supreme over this blog for as long as we keep on bloggin. You truly have captured the spirit of Electroqueer this past year and we wish you all the biggest success in 2008. Expect heavy coverage of Antigone in 2008 when her "beyond amazing" album ‘Antigoneland’ drops and please visit all the links below to submerse yourself in the captivating workings of the wondrous and seriously-edged artist that is Antigone.
Antigone on the Web:
:: Antigone MySpace – For all the latest developments in Antigoneland
:: Official Website – More on the vixen here.
:: Etherfox Website – Learn more about Antigone’s disco beginnings
:: EQ Live Review and Interview – Get to know Antigone and her show more…
:: XOLondon Interview – Extremely insightful interview and profile.