Darren Cross founder of Sydney's eclectic electronic rock group, Gerling and more recently of Jep and Dep fame is set to release his debut solo album '_Xantastic' this coming September on the new independent record label NO DRUM RECORDS.
The debut record, under his own name, is inspired by genre defying albums like The Beatles ‘White Album' and 'Mellow Gold' by Beck, a general disregard to musical categorisation -something that his previous band Gerling were famous for- although there are no reckless party anthems on '_Xantastic".
Mixing 60's folk protest songs and apocalyptic folktronica, most of the album is a questioning and trying to make sense of the rapid developments of globally minded governments, technology, the feverishly expanding population, community, and a gentrified world: with the usual amounts of sorrow of human existence peppered throughout...'_Xantastic' can be described as downbeat.
Xantastic is the state of euphoria that one feels after eating Xanax. The substance is often prescribed for mental health disorders related to anxiety - Cross sees this correlation of the musicality of his album: whilst being ambient in nature, the album is balanced with the message that the world is rapidly changing into something, perhaps not pleasant. The overall feeling of the album, to Darren, has almost a _Xantastic effect ... A place where abstract metaphors clash with peaceful folk guitars and electronica that gives a balanced experience, a peaceful Apocalypse, understated but profound.
"_Xantastic" dances all over preconceived notions of acceptable genre specific playlist mentalities- in a society where kids can type their names on iphone's before they can scrawl it with a pen and paper- surely 'The playlist generation' can understand a body of work with a diverse emotional measure?
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