News Christian AIDS

Atmospheric electro, painted with broad, synthetic strokes: the sound that launched a thousand desperate A&R emails. Christian AIDS have been making waves all over the place without even having to show their faces, play a gig or even engage in the most basic of day-to-day band duties. They’ve never had to travel over a hundred miles to a show by rental van, only to play to a handful of people only there for the happy hour drinks offers – and it’s probable that they never will.

The music industry is always going to be one that attracts more than its fair amount of chancers, but the problem for most is that they’ve got absolutely no idea how they best go about getting ahead – something that the ubiquitous Unsigned nights have taken advantage of, giving local bands the opportunity to play tracks exclusively to their friends and family after having the privilege of selling tickets to them for the promoters personal profit. But from the very off, you get the sense that Christian AIDS have a slightly broader game plan in place.

First of all, the songs are great. ‘Stay Positive’ is standout – a kind of industrial pop call to arms, a release of all the recent baby steps taken by experimental synth music, turned into an overpowering anthem, whilst other tracks ‘Fever’ and ‘Scum’ tow a very similar line without quite managing to scale the same masterly heights.

The fact that it’s a sound that is very ‘on trend’ is important, though, especially in context of the imagery used by the group – who refuse to reveal even the most basic of details about themselves ahead of their debut show – for all of their promotional work. WU LYF focussed more on symbols and signifiers, the aesthetic of forceful, otherworldly photographs and video played an important role, something Christian AIDS have followed up on. There are pictures of young children smoking and posturing, the occasional glimpse of a breast and two naked young men covering themselves up with flowers, all in black and white. You can all the great tracks in the world, but it’s this level of expertise that really gets the juices flowing.