Seattle synth duo, Sugar Addikt, take elements from 70’s disco, 80’s mainstream pop, 90’s dance music and 21st-century electronica and use those wide-ranging influences to forge music that is both familiar and infectious yet unique and forward-thinking. Shackles, from their latest ep, Phoenix, is a song that wanders between pulsating dancefloor energy and the highly stylized Vogue vibe of New York’s 80’s nightspots, sonic highs and understated lows.
It mixes conversational, sultry vocals, skittering beats and weaves of synth textures to create a sound that ebbs and flows between euphoric dance grooves and subdued, alternative electronica.
It acknowledges the past whilst building new sonic futures, it wanders the underground pathways of the alternative dance scene whilst appealing to the more discerning tastes of the mainstream pop picker. And the real charm of Shackles is that it does all of this through only the most spacious and selective sonic elements. It ain’t what you do, it’s the way that you do it. Never was that more true than here.
[…] Shackles set out the sonic stall nicely for this latest ep from Seattle duo Sugar Addikt, but one song, as great as it is, can only say so much. And if you liked that first single, and why wouldn’t you, then embracing the sonic charms of this 5-track offering is the logical next step. […]