- Secret Melody Touchy 5:17
Touchy has released their new single and video titled ‘Secret Melody’. Feeling that retro dance, even partial disco vibe, feels all so much better being born and raised in that late 70s, early 80s era where video first murdered the radio star and everyone was into west end girls. That flagrant regard for lush and vivid musical progression and wonderful droning quality of the genre, Touchy gets feely with the beat and gives the new decade a push in the right direction.
About Touchy & ‘Secret Melody’
Touchy is a two-piece pop group created by Patsy Gelb and Christian Blunda. Inspired and impassioned by late 70s and early 80s electronic, disco, and pop, the duo draws from the likes of Giorgio Moroder, Patrick Cowley, Brigitte Bardot, and Space to forge their sparkling, electronic sound. Touchy’s trip—if you should choose to join them—is a one-way ticket to a trans-dimensional synth-based dream-world of their own ongoing design.
Touchy made their public debut with a 5-week European tour in late 2019. Their first US show, booked for March 14th, 2020, was canceled, reconfiguring the band into an isolated home recording project. Their downtime now viewed as an opportunity, they spent the time finishing songs. The first results from these lockdown recordings are “Secret Melody” and “Tout Petit La Planète,” Touchy’s debut singles for Dangerbird Records’ Microdose single series.
“Secret Melody” pushes an NYC/Blonde Redhead vibration through the filter of continental Europe, circa 1981. A crisp, metallic drum pattern underpins a sea of grandiose synth stabs and galloping arpeggios. Gelb’s cool, aloof voice, almost whispered, guides the listener through this cold, mysterious sonic landscape. “Secret melody comes to me in a dream,” she sings, trailing off into the icy synthetic swirl.
“Tout Petit La Planète,” a cover of the 1978 song by the Belgian electro-pop artist Plastic Bertrand, takes the measured pace of the original and pumps up the tempo, along with the stickiness, converting the song into an utterly contemporary artifact. Utilizing much of the same musical palette as “Secret Melody,” the duo gives the robotic disco classic a fresh coat of paint, making it both more alluring and languid at once.
Two songs in, Touchy’s aesthetic reflects their shared history as purveyors of pop, but with a slick shine of distance. An invitation to participate and no cloying excess.
As if it were emerging from a distant galaxy, “Secret Melody” opens with pulsing backbeats and spiraling synth lines that give way to Patsy Gelb’s coy delivery. With an aura of mystery, she introduces the ethos behind the haunting instrumentals. In the space where all things grow, It’s a place that no one knows, And it gives me life eternally Here, it came over me a little melody, I hear.
The accompanying music video is directed by Touchy and features the duo in their fringe-laden resplendence. Like a David Lynch film in outer space, Touchy floats through a sparkling expanse. The visuals perfectly match the arpeggiated swirl of melodrama music.
Touchy’s “Secret Melody” is out now via Dangerbird Records.
Featured image by Rebecca Noble.
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