• Jim Knights - Vocals, guitars, synths, programming
• Scarlet - Bass, synths, programmining

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Reviews - Modern Radio

Contact Music
Scarlet Soho are a New Romantic duo that already reached critical acclaim with the debut album and with this single they promise to reach an even bigger audience. The vibe of ‘Modern Radio’ is halfway between pop and electronic, but it has the same distinctive touch of sadness that the songs of New Romantic movement had in the eighties. The atmosphere is perfectly recreated, but something contemporary has been added, in particular the guitars in second track ‘Fibre Optic’. There’s more than rock here, more that pure synths and an overall dark feel, a slight Nine Inch Nails influence and the touch of Jim Knights’ incredibly acute voice and bassist Scarlet’s backing vocals. A real drama permeates this band, and it’s the reason they are rapidly generating a cult following.
-- Giada Arnone
www.contactmusic.com

The Mag
What can you say about Scarlet Soho that hasn`t already been said? Well, not much because there are so many people talking about them! However, with one of the most instant songs from their album hitting the streets very soon, accompanied by an unreleased b-side, something ought to be said about this strange collection of tunes.

"Modern Radio" combines various eighties keyboard sounds together, along with some Duran Duran style camera clicking to create a swirling pop track with an urgent melody. The verse and chorus are pacey but there are several moments of contrast after the chorus and toward the end of the song.

Sounding initially like the eerie soundtrack to a b-movie, "Fibre Optic" is a dark and enigmatic track with lots of ambient sounds fused together to make the rhythm. After the 100% synthetic creation of "Modern Radio" the guitars make the difference to this record, with the bass laying down a powerful beat and the guitars flying off down `Cure meets Bauhaus` tangents in between chugging verse sections. After all this misshapen musicianship the chorus is an up tempo pop moment that is nothing short of surprising in the middle of a twisted song.

Scarlet Soho write songs that contain loads of strap-line lyrics which then get taken to a surgically scrubbed room to lay down meticulously detailed tracks, that mix the emotionless synth-led eighties with the guitar-angst of the nineties.

"Modern Radio" is a good single, but the b-side "Fibre Optic" is what makes this really worth getting hold of
-- Saur
www.themag.me.uk

Shoot From The Lip
Modern Radio, the new single from Scarlet Soho’s debut album Divisions of Decency, is a tight edged, sharp-suited slice of electro, clean and precise like the ticking of a metronome. It takes sounds from the colder end of the synthesiser’s range, stony guitar grindings and the most dauntingly inhuman clicks that the drum machine is capable of making, and melds them into a coldly dramatic mechanical onslaught. It’s got a beat, you can dance to it, but it also has the chilly, disengaged feeling of a stark winter landscape viewed from the window of a speeding train.

Twinned with the detachment of the vocals - a bleak, echoing deadpan on holding forth on love, voyeurism, surgical techniques and the camera lens - it makes for a kind of polaroid snapshot of Scarlet Soho’s particularly disenchanted take on a cold, inhuman modern world. But it’s a disenchantment you can dance to, putting a human face on the chilly grey mechanics of it all and making this record a good candidate for the soundtrack to the last-ditch burst of warm-blooded resistance before the machines take over and turn the world to metal.
-- Holly Davies
www.shootfromthelip.co.uk

Sonance
The new download-only single, set to be released at the end of the month, by Scarlet Soho is one MP3 you won't mind shelling out for. At 89p a track from Karma Download it's not exactly cheap, but definately get the B-side. (Oh, and pick up the album for the title track)

If you have any sense, you will already be familiar with the title track, Modern Radio. One of the stand out tracks on the album Divisions of Decency. Full of Scarlet Soho's trademark electronic hooks, Jim's distinctive voice and plenty of drum machine to provide a great soundtrack for dancing!

The B-Side Fibre Optic, is a live favourite and it's strange to hear it down on record. Scarlet Soho really come into their own when they hit the stage, so it may have been wise if they kept this live favourite just that. That said, it's a great track, showing the band's dark side full of slow brooding guitar and rumbling bass. Their punchy, electronic edge is still there but this is one that needs to be turned up to 11 for full effect.

I am not an advocate of singles and don't agree with paying for MP3s when you could buy a lovely CD and have a tangible object in your hand for little more cost - but I recommend you get these tracks. If you'd prefer a CD though buy the album and don't forget to check them out on tour this month. As I said before, Scarlet Soho enter a different universe when they're live!
-- Lellie
www.sonance.co.uk

Reviews

• Modern Radio
• Divisions Of Decency
• Isolation
• Live