Self-proclaimed “Tāmaki Makaurau’s romantic catastrophists”, electronic group Crap Date is the project of Jamie-Lee Smith (Princess Chelsea), Marcel Bellvé (Battle Circus) and John Ropiha Silvsgaard, and ‘600 Abs’ is the third single they dropped since last year, after ‘Ephemera’ and ‘Genoa City Blues.’
Like the previous two, this didn’t disappoint. This ‘80s-influenced synth pop single made me feel like that I’m watching a three-hour, action-packed movie from the start to finish. It’s a very positive song, starting low and slow, but the soaring vocals by Smith are uplifting and I was mesmerized by the synthesizers. To make it sound even more cinematic, the video for the song is an edit of a scene in 2016’s Ben-Hur (yes, yes, I know it can’t hold a candle to the 1959 one), with the track paired to a sequence showing title character’s near-death experience, when the Roman warship he served as a galley slave was sunk by the Greeks.
But to make this wonderful song even better, after beloved K Road venue Whammy Bar said earlier this month it is shutting doors for 12 weeks to figure out a way to stay viable after Covid-19, Crap Date is one of the many local acts to announce that all proceedings from their music sales will be donated to Whammy.
There isn’t anything much nicer than this during the lockdown, when you can enjoy yourself to some lovely local music and actually support them as well.
