Album Review: Alex Frankel’s “Negative Space” Will Leave You Positively Dancing
You might have heard of Alex Frankel as the frontman for the widely renown Holy Ghost! This duo, with Nick Millihiser, have created dance-electronica that is distinct to them, and has headlined so many Millennials’ nights out that they can be considered “rave royalty”. Thus, with that amount of success, you have to give even more love and respect to Frankel’s successful solo-venture, Negative Space. He has no reason to branch out beyond a hunger to express his personal creativity in a new light, which turns Negative Space into a positive one.
Negative Space is 80’s techno- dance music in its ultimate glory. It, immediately, creates a disco space in your mind. In four tracks, Frankel summons big hair, neon kicks, and confetti cannons as you electric slide your way through life. The EP feels fun and big, and makes you want more from Frankel, which is exactly his goal. In just this brief tasting of his individual sound and style, you want a giant sundae of his music with extra cherried rhythms.
Track By Track Review:
Simply., this is a dance track, and a perfect beginning to Negative Space EP. It sets the upbeat tempo that Frankel will consistently deliver throughout this record and, certainly, his career. Frankel’s tracks and words are lightly intoxicating like a drug meant to soothe you into rhythmic sleep.
In the 80’s, funk thrived through the power of the keys. The keyboard drives this track to build a synthetically delicious piece of candy for your ears. The song sounds like it belongs in a scene of the film Drive, with Frankel being the character of The Driver. His quickened, lyrical pace and vocal range will make anyone addicted to his music, and wondering why anyone would be in a negative space after hearing him?
My favorite song of the EP, “Lost Design” is emblematic of how life and love can often feel like…. well…. a lost design. For however we shape our life, it seems the universe has a more abstract pattern for us. Hence, this track has oddly romantic frequency to it as Frankel’s smooth-toned voice guides you through a standard day for an everyday human being.
This track is probably one of the darkest and most mysterious of the album. It sounds like a film noir as you musically investigate crime through the power of sound. Each machinated beat is a clue into the manufactured sins of Frankel’s Negative Space. It is both fantastic and rambunctious.
To Buy Alex Frankel’s Negative Space Click Here, and check out Holy Ghost’s concert on October 13 at Terminal 5.
