Acme has released a follow up to June’s fantastic "Girlfriend Tonight," this time a double-single video for "California Girls/Numbers Game." The singles are a culmination of everything Acme has done before. 2013’s Synths, Beats & Psychedelia was filled with synth-noise heavy anthems (not to mention the marvelous heartbreak dirge Howl), and channeled indie groups like M83 and TV On The Radio. This year’s "Girlfriend Tonight" was a relatively clean, old-school funk jam, where the synths provided a psychedelic flavor instead of being central to the song (those duties went to the rhythm section and guitars), which proved Acme has the chops to do funk the real way: live, without simply relying on loops to provide the groove.
"California Girls" is definitely a funk number for the dance floor, but with thick, juicy synthetic sounds that could give Prince a run for his money. "Numbers Game" is also based around a groove, but this one is less funk, and more atmospheric, the sounds swirling and growing around the rhythm tracks before the vocals drop delicately in the final minute with a simple request, extending the theme in "Girlfriend Tonight."
Together these two tracks make for Acme’s most powerful aesthetic statement yet. They are something else, combining the richest and craziest flavors of the old and the new, mixing sunshine happiness and moonlight hope. –Natan Press