what happens at the beginning of time is that there is no time at all

For some reason I do not trust songs that start with a drum roll. Of any kind.

I have not figured out why actually.

But here is a band that proved me decidedly wrong, The Shimura Curves, or " four girls from london playing pristine electro pop" which is how they describe themselves on their myspace account. Listing under Influences in the same breath are The Jesus And Mary Chain, Destiny's Child, and Sterolab. What to make of that, I have no idea, but if Im Not Afraid is a product of that mismash, then I dont really care.

The song sounds kitschly pop, what with the blatant electronic effects sprinkled everywhere and oo-ah echoing vocals, plus the lyrics are all mathematical geekery, but somehow in all this a jaunty infectious tune is created that will have you humming " i'm not afraid.. of electricity" at suspicious times. Think something like the Pipettes, but without the colourful sashaying and cutesy stuff in the music and you have this. Not as slick and luxuriant, but all honest to goodness finely tuned melodic chaos.

An interesting quality of this song lies in that while it may sound simplisitically repetitious at first, no thanks in part to that computer doo-dee that goes on happily in the background as if it were the most natural thing in the world, it merely *sounds* deceptively simple. Like the universe of singularities and infinities it sings of, the song is best taken in its beautiful whole, a simple easily appreciable whole made up of tiny invisible bits and processes that are very complicated upon closer inspection.

Shimura Curves - I'm Not Afraid

from their myspace site, captioned "Effects pedals and glamourous shoes - that's what we're all about!"

thanks to fluxblog.