Medallius is the debut album from Davey Pierce and Nicolas ‘Dobby’ Dobbratz, otherwise known as Yip Deceiver. The dance duo developed and recorded the diverse sound in their home state Georgia, and though having been released in America last September, the album is due to make its UK debut here in July.
At first Medallius comes across as a modern take on the eighties, with electro-pop and saxophone solos harking back to those used by Duran Duran and Hall & Oates. Though the thorough use of synth-pop melodies highlight clear inspirations from the decade of leg warmers and perms, there is something about Medallius that makes it work as modern pop-funk. Rather than being outdated, Yip Deceiver seem to draw upon these inspirations to create something slightly nostalgic to the older generations while also appealing to the younger with the catchy pop rhythms that fit in with the current music trends, particularly in the festival season and summer weather.
‘Color Me In’ takes on a darker tone with vocals that seem to be dragged out and distorted, resulting in something you might expect if Tim Burton wrote an eighties song; it’s light-hearted yet not without a hint of darkness. Contrastingly the following two songs feature typical computer game melodies, and the introduction of ‘2nd Son of a 2nd Son’ in particular is enough to make you feel as if you’re strolling around a Pokémon universe.
Medallius is a masterpiece of pop tracks, using different elements to produce an in-depth and contextual selection of eleven tracks that are also generally great fun to listen to. As well as pop and funk the album explores hip hop in penultimate track ‘Tops Part II’, the hint of synth-pop making it sound like background music for The Fresh Prince of Bel Air. The album finishes with ‘Double Future’ which despite its electronic nature follows a melodic structure typical of your average guitar plucking indie track.
Yip Deceiver’s debut album is a delightful abundance of jaunty feel good tunes from a range of inspirations that have led the duo to make Medallius, in Davey’s words, “music for a weird night of random adventure”.
SAMANTHA MAE 