SINGLE REVIEW: Artio – ‘Billionaire Nightmare’

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‘Billionaire Nightmare’ sees Artio take a turn into the raucous, into something gritty; The EP – ‘Stand Alone And Do Your Dance’ – hinted at a more raucous and raw sound but they’ve let the brakes off here. Yes, there’s that big synth feel but it’s combined with something wilder, something that’s loud and out there, hard guitar.

That feel reflects what the song is about, the band explain ‘Billionaire Nightmare is about using your uniqueness to derail a system that was designed to defeat you. It’s about being different, whether that means bending the rules of gender, fashion, beauty, masculinity, femininity, or sexuality. It’s about not fitting in, not feeding the men at the top who profit from insecurities, inequality, racism and cruelty. You don’t have to shapeshift to fit in anymore, because that’s what they want you to do. So be your own master, become their worst nightmare.’

So it’s a song of protest, a call to arms, your bloody fucking marching orders.

Loud and raucous it may at times but the track doesn’t lose those moments of subtlety you expect from Artio, these clever touches of sounds that surprise, those layers of sounds that encourage you to dive deeper and deeper into the song.And over this wonderful sound Hol sings, she sings with a strength that amazes, a strength that says she means every word of those lyrics.

Artio have become a band who surprise, who take their sound in unexpected directions, who are not afraid to push the envelope, or even break out of the envelope. And this is a thrill, it makes following the band such an experience.

This, my friends, is incredible. If you’re not on board with Artio, get on board with this. Do that now, right now.

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Frank is the website guy for Local Sound Focus. Takes a lot of photos and loves writing about new music.