This song was originally cut by the Melbourne-based duo Polygon Palace, but I like better what the Swiss production team Cryptonites have done with it. The original version
felt a bit slight, its drum-machine aesthetic just a little too DIY. It
was definitely a counterintuitive move: write a song about piloting a
time machine to the future, then give it a retro sound. But
counterintuitive isn't always best. Cryptonites burnish the track with
hazy keys, some Bootsy Collins bass, and a confident dancefloor beat,
making it into the late-night sci-fi jam it always wanted to be.
Credit where credit is due, though: Polygon Palace are the ones responsible for the song's excellent opening lines. "All you wanted to do was get away from here," sings frontman Adam Ferns. "For all I know, you're always going to feel the same." In a song about exoticism and escape, here's an unexpected note of resignation. It puts me in mind of those articles you read sometimes, about how Facebook amplifies our tendency to fret about our lives, or how Google makes it easier to linger over an ex. Technologies change--they get faster and more impressive--but human hearts continue to behave pretty much the way they always have.
But lest you get the impression the song lacks a sense of humor, I'll also point out that it contains one of the better shout-outs I've heard in a while. Ferns proposes that he and a companion hijack a time machine and "travel to year seven-triple-oh," where they can--it's hard to hear, but it's been confirmed by the band--"kick it like Han Solo." More Star Wars references in slick club pop, please.
On iTunes: Polygon Place / "Tokyo Getaway (Cryptonites Remix)"
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