RED PAINTED RED: That Was The Reason Why

Release year: 2023
Label: Zoharum

British duo Red Painted Red are one of those groups who’re genuinely hard to pin down. That much is clear already from label Zoharum’s description of the album. The promo text throws around terms such as avant-pop, synthwave, neofolk, trip-hop and darkwave; descriptors which are not only leagues apart, but are in some ways also contradictory.

So you know you’re in for an eccentric and eclectic ride when you pop this little disc in your CD player. But the biggest surprise of all is how, despite That Was The Reason Why being every bit as odd as you expect it to be, it’s also incredibly accessible.

Yes, there’s an undeniable element of pop here. Melodies you can latch on to, vocal lines that catch and keep your attention, and just a kind of hard-to-describe overall accessibility one doesn’t usually associate with music of an experimental nature.

And that’s a good thing. It ensures there’s no self-indulgently artsy fartsy, self-servingly introvert core on this album. In all it’s oddity, That Was The Reason why is an album that’s easy to get into, and easy to recommend.

In part, of course, this is because there’s no shortage of competence on the album. Vocalist Yew has a beautiful voice carrying both tenderness and power. The instrumentation, arrangements and songs themselves are all well done, and Yew together with her companion-in-crime S. Caroll capably craft somewhat weirded-out, hauntingly familiar yet strange atmospheres.

From one point of view, I think it is entirely justified to call That Was The Reason Why essentially a slightly avantgarde synthpop album.

But you can’t limit it to that. Because, frankly, there’s a lot of odd stuff going on here on so many levels. One prime example is Knife, a song that on the surface sounds like a Enigma type amalgamation of downtempo and pop: read the lyrics, and the whole song becomes… well, skewed. The music is beautifully serene, but the lyrics tell about a person locked in an unconscious body on the operating table.

Or Astronauts, one of my favourites on the album. Musically, an understated layer of ambient synths and a languid beat; lyrics of interstellar travel; but there’s this hard to describe folk-y feel to the vocal melody and wording of the lyrics. It’s bizarre in how everything contrasts, and it’s incredibly captivating.

And my absolute favourite on the album: Silence. A slow, heavy beat and a discordant layer of synthesized noise, over which Yew recites what appears to be something between a funeral sermon, elegy and ritual invocation. There’s a weird urgency to the lyrics and their delivery, which turns the song into a plea.

And of course there’s a lot more. The calm sweeping synths of Going Home, over which a lengthy speech sample adds a subtly disturbing sensation to it all. I don’t know who the person speaking is – it’s not mentioned in the credits – but the album takes its name from this speech sample.

And so on. Each track seems to have its own unique dose of beautiful strangeness.

That Was The Reason why is a confusing but delightful combination of clashing, contrasting elements. Beauty with a subversively corrupted undercurrent; almost naivistic pop expression poisoned by a strange darkness at the core; serenity and tranquillity diverted by an incessant whisper just at the edge of hearing. It kind of feels like an inside joke you think you get – but you realize there’s some level that keeps on eluding you. Getting a fast grip on the album always seems to be one listen away.

But still, That Was The Reason Why remains accessible despite all its eccentricity and weirdness. And that is its greatest strength: this is the opposite of an “acquired taste”, where you have to learn to listen to the weirdness. On the contrary, Red Painted Red manage to make their music instantly accessible, and it’s only after a while that the weirdness starts seeping into the listeners’ consciousness. And that’s when the album starts sinking its hooks in you.

Visit Red Painted Red on their official website, Bandcamp or Facebook