What a thoughtful guy Kyle Sattler is. Not only has this new single Surfing The Meme Machine by his alter-ego/solo act We Will Ride Fast provided Flash-Trax‘s Four Hundredth post in our twelve months in operation, but he’s also deeply pulled apart the phenomenon of the Meme, one of the signature symbolisms of our time. And he’s done it rather well.

Firstly to the music. The mix is a very discordant, unsettling yet not alarming balance of synth, bass, some guitars sitting in there and a wholesale Thomas Dolby meets Devo vibe. Kyle recorded and mixed himself, with mastering desk whizz Carl Saff at Saff Recordings in Chicago, Illinois doing the polishing up. Kyle‘s vocal is reminiscent of how David Byrne or Fred Schneider would sound if they were a tad angrier with life. It’s that kind of vibe. Pretty intense in a neat way, very dystopian and somewhat desiring to be a part of the soundtrack if they make another Matrix movie.

There’s a cool, easy on the eye vid on the You Tubes machine. I won’t give any spoilers, but again this is part of the idea of the Thomas Dolby/Devo term of reference. It’s a good concept, and doesn’t need a million dollars to achieve what he’s aiming at. And what is he aiming at?

Kyle himself explains that the persona he’s portraying in the video is kind of biographical of the overarching We Will Ride Fast concept, wherein we play a role when we are a performing musician: the role of performing musician – and it is often not who we really are at all. Kyle‘s performance in the promo vid plays up to and highlights how that can be perceived.

Lyrically, Kyle is also telling a warning tale about how the Meme is insinuating its way into our core consciousness and beginning to drive our individualism towards echo chambers and algorithms that fill us with what we think we want to read, hear and see. That’s how I received the message, anyway. Why don’t you pop onto the Spotify platform and have a listen yourself? Better still, go look at the vid. I’d be keen to hear your take. It’s a very interesting topic and very pertinent.

This should get some decent airplay on radio, and I can definitely see it hitting Juice for the vid. If you like electronic pop with a definite edginess, a punky challenge, and an intellectually thought-inspiring subject matter, you’ll come to the right place. Also it’s got enough vibe and tempo to fit in at any sub-culture club you care to name. Dancy as all hell! DJs – I hope you’re being attentive.

Four hundred posts for Flash-Trax, and a damn fine way to hit it with such a cool number. Welcome to Flash-Trax We Will Ride Fast. Do more of this stuff!