by Public Service Broadcasting
Inform – Educate – Entertain is the debut album from UK project Public Service Broadcasting. A curious hybrid of vintage vocal samples, retro dance beats and even the occasional driving rock back-bone, this album takes musical inspiration from early pop-electronica while delivering an album that should be an early summer soundtrack here in the southern hemisphere.
Essentially the brainchild of J. Willigoose, Esq. (really?) Inform – Educate – Entertain could easily have been dismissed as some kind of novelty record had the production values and overall quality of the music not been so damn engaging. The disc kicks off with the electro title-track – a piece that could easily have been an outtake from Harold Faltermeyer’s ‘Beverly Hills Cop’ soundtrack. By ‘Signal 30’ we’re truly rocking with a track built around samples about driving fast and drinking too much.
‘Qomolangma’ offers a short, textural interlude mid album that helps bring the tempo down before new colours are introduced through ‘ROYGBIV’, a track that also introduces us to the acoustic banjo, contrasted against a synth sound that walks the line between retro-hip and pure cheese.
Ultimately Inform – Educate – Entertain from Public Service Broadcasting doesn’t really sound like it belongs in this century, but it’s that sense of curious retrospectivity that makes it such an entertaining way to spend an hour in the headphones.
by Owen McKern - PBS Program Manager
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