Monday 9 April 2012

Ronika - Automatic


The recent release of 'MDNA' proved that Madonna is still struggling in the current music climate, so it's good to see someone else taking up the mantle of 80's style pop.  Madonna is a clear infuence on Ronika, a young singer-songwriter-producer from Nottingham, in both her music and fashion sense.  Automatic is the latest release for the young starlet and it's great to see someone injecting a bit of slickly produced, lighthearted fun into the charts.

At first listen, Automatic may seem ripped straight from the early 80s: funk guitars, sexy bass grooves and synths seemingly played on an old casio keyboard - the middle eight solo especially.  And you'd be right, as Ronika has sampled Odyssey's 1982 track TogetherShe hasn't just updated the lyrics though, as her production includes subtle modern elements like the womping sub bass and nicely cut samples.  Plus, watching the video is like stepping in a time machine to the dawn of MTV, all neon graphics and sun-kissed American surfers.  Sure, the sampling results in a track that is less her own work than her past releases, but it also results in a stonking pop track.

4/5

Listen: Automatic is available now from Ronika's website.