New music
Pride may only be for one month, but its impact lasts forever. June may have drawn to a close, but we see no reason to stop celebrating our queer companions, and this neat playlist from Rhumba Club underlines this.
So, some basics. Rhumba Club is the work of London-based, Jersey-born musician Tom Falle, with his debut album landing back in 2021. A riveting talent, he blended club tropes with an off piste pop approach, delivering something scintillating, and very much tongue-in-cheek.
Making his live return at London’s intimate Lower Third back in March, Rhumba Club unveiled its new iteration. Incoming album ‘Love Apokalypto’ is out on July 7th, a bold, hyper-colourful return that broadens his approach still further.
Ahead of this, Rhumba Club has picked out some Pride favourites. “I’ve chosen not to go for obvious camp classics, but have instead picked tracks concerned with queer culture that have impacted on my creative life,” he explains.
“The question is, can I get to the end of this list without mentioning the word ‘Padam’? I’ll do my best…”
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Sylvester – ‘Give It Up (Don’t Make Me Wait)’
The elegant androgyne Sylvester always gets my Pride party started with this 1981 disco-bop. The recording feels like it’s being played live, right next to you. Bongos, bass, sax and Rhodes intertwine, while cliches that mean nothing and everything are repeated (‘the time is now’ ‘don’t make me wait’, ‘give it up’).
Understated and underrated, ‘Give It Up’ is a staple of my Pride DJ Sets.
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Oliver Sim – ‘Romance With A Memory’
Merging Motown with unrequited gay fantasy, and the disappointment of hook-up reality. It’s as if The Supremes spent a day on Grindr. For me, Oliver is one of the best queer artists to release in 2022, groovy and weird, like all pop should be.
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The Blow Monkeys – ‘Digging Your Scene’
Dr. Roberts’ ode to the gay community during the AIDS crisis is good allyship exemplified. It was considered controversial to express solidarity at the time, but he went for it, glitter curtain, sax solo et al.
The track deals with the innateness of being queer and the psychological trauma that society can present you with. Groundbreaking pop which seems to place gay culture on a pedestal. Quite right too…
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Pet Shop Boys + Dusty Springfield – ‘What Have I Done To Deserve This?’
A masterpiece which alludes to the queer experience with all the knowingness and slight of hand that we’ve come to love the Pet Shop Boys for.
The video initially presents as a heterosexual break-up duet, but the cracks in the narrative start to appear quite quickly: the protagonists (Neil Tennant and a very gravelly Dusty Springfield) are certainly not straight, for instance, and the whole backstage-at-the-theatre setting feels artificial.
The whole thing then becomes a kind of metaphor for the straight-world hoops queer people so often have to jump through to get by, as Dusty and Neil knowingly sing ‘What Have I Done To Deserve This?’. The sad irony is hard to resist, and yet I still want to dance to that brass riff. Such are the contradictions that make a camp classic.
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Blood Orange – ‘Augustine’
I’ve always admired how Dev Hynes has centered queer people and queer culture in his songs, videos and sleeves. Augustine, a semi-religious tune, deals with place, race, and belonging. It serves a nostalgic atmosphere with its abundant reverbs, drum machines, emotional lyricism and voguing.
Both the video and track utilise so many of the conventions of queer culture and the result is something almost spiritual. Genius steals etc. For me, Dev has created an alt-queer classic.
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Kate Bush – ‘Rubberband Girl’
As with all great Kate Bush tracks, on the face of it, it’s totally bonkers. But in truth this is a song all about resilience and stoicism in the face of permanent exhausting crises.
Sound familiar? Yes, there’s a reason the gays love Kate Bush.
She manages to organise, package and present the vulnerability and eccentricity that so many queer people relate to into four and a half minutes of delicately crafted bliss.
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Rufus Wainwright – ‘The Art Teacher’
This song normalized male-on-male crushes for me when I was a teenager. Throw in a Philip Glass-esque piano accompaniment and Rufus’ luxurious vocal, it’s etched into my artistic consciousness like a tattoo.
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Perfume Genius – ‘On The Floor’
Perfume Genius’ ability to write about queer love without caveat or compromise is extraordinary. In On The Floor he unpacks that crush feeling in a way which feels universal, but something about the arrangement speaks to a uniquely queer sensibility.
Maybe it’s the fuzzy synth bass, or the yearning falsetto BVs, or the merging of a 6/8 rock’n’roll beat with a kind of Kylie-esque synth-pad… am.
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Photo Credit: Charlie Pryor
