A few weeks ago, I received an invite to the coolest of coolest album launch parties for Melnyk's "Revolutions". How could I say no? With special appearances by Sara Berg and Heartbreak it was basically an electronic music orgasm waiting to explode. I especially loved that it was at The Player club in Soho – a venue that I had a party at about three years ago, but haven't returned to since. So with eager ears and a wad of cash I headed down to The Player expecting nothing but a good night of electronic music and drink.
When I arrived, I was over the moon to find out that EQ reader Barnaby had won the contest that Gaymonkey records ran on EQ – they couldn't have picked a more deserving winner! After a few champagnes, white wines and admiring the illustrious Sara Berg from a far (actually across the room), I was in the mood for music and at about 9:30 Melnyk took to the laptop to which I thought – "This is going to be good". Boy, was I wrong – it was rather "mind blowing" and you can quote me on that.
The show opener track, "Revolutions" was tre cool. I had no idea that Sebastian from Heartbreak did the vocals on that song – I had thought it was Melnyk himself all along! After that, Melynk did "We Run" from the and it was an electro-disco sensation. I have to admit, I was surprised he did this one, but pleasantly pleased all at the same time. In a moment to re-visit an early track from his critically-acclaimed "Silence" album, Melnyk did "Strut", accompanied by the beautiful Sara Berg who just shone bright star on the night. She has a magical quality to her vocals that just draws you in – whether you like her or not. She's just genius and I don't write about her enough on EQ. I'm hoping to change that actually, but I digress. The next song on the setlist was "The Competition" which is probably my favourite song from "Revolutions". It has a gorgeous synthy backdrop covered again by Sara's lovely vocals.
However the penultimate song on the setlist, "Deal With God" totally made my head explode like a smashing pumpkin. It's a cover of the Kate Bush classic "Running Up That Hill" and it's out of this world EQs! The best cover version of this song that I ever heard. I looked over at Barnaby and you could tell he was imploding with delight as well. Barnaby reckons "Running Up That Hill" is one of the most spontaneously covered songs of all time. I might have to agree with him there. But with Melnyk and Sara Berg doing it, it's pure electronic bliss to say the least. Still basking in the sheer delight of having heard "Deal With God", Melnyk delivered his most recognizable tune "Fabulous" which was met with loads of cheers and applaud. It was the perfect weapon to close out the set.
After the show and a few more drinks and conversations with Melynk (real name Jeff) and the lovely Gaymonkey staff I decided that I wanted to get to know Sara Berg more and I boldly introduced myself to her. Her reaction was "Darling, would you like to join me for a cigarette?". Now, I totally don't smoke, but when Sara Berg asks you to join her for a ciggy, you don't fucking say no! More drinks and conversation followed and in my brief time with Sara I found out that she's actually doing her next album in Swedish. Although with Sweden being her home country, she's finding it more challenging to do songs in Swedish versus English – which I found quite interesting. Swedish or English – hell, I'm still downloading it.
Woke up the next day, slightly hungover, still in delight. I played Heartbreak's album "Lies" about 200 times and there is an EQ review coming on that one very soon. I also re-visited Sara's last album "When I Was A Young Child I Used To Feel Pleasure Playing With Others" which wins the award for longest album title ever, but with an artist like Sara Berg, you quickly learn that conventionality is thrown out the window. I scoured the internet for "Deal With God" but it doesn't exist online yet. Still being kept under lock and key on Melnyk's laptop which is probably a good thing, but if the masses heard this, I think Melnyk and Sara would pick up a ton of new fans…something to ponder. All in all – I have to say that Melnyk is just amazing. He's got great people and musicians around him, he makes some rather innovative and pleasing electronic music and being the driving force behind a very exclusive record label like Gaymonkey, he forever has a fan in the way of EQ.
You should be a fan too. Fuck the credit crunch, get out your debit card now.
Download Melnyk's "Revolutions" now. Download Sara Berg's "When I Was A Young Child I Used To Feel Pleasure From Playing With Others" now. Download Heartbreak's "Lies" now.And if all that wasn't enough, here's three more reasons that you should love Melnyk.
- He collaborates with Temposhark all the time. "Hurricane" is actually a re-work of "Knock Me Out" on the "Revolutions" album.
- He collaborates with Ebb. Another EQ approved artist that I adore.
- He did a "Im With Stupid" remix for Pet Shop Boys – respect.