ASTON – ASTON

I’m going to ignore the fact that Aston look like the Northern Beaches cast of Gossip Girl because they actually sound pretty good. Aged between 21 and 23, these students of the Sydney Conservatorium of Music have created an album by taking modern pop tunes and rearranging them into classical instrumentals. This has been done in the past, most notably by FourPlay, an electric string quartet who made classical music heavy by performing rock ballads from Metallica and the likes.  Aston are not quite as raw or powerful, because they are turning pop into melancholic scores.  Gaga’s Telephone sounds terribly sad- like a missed connection in a 1920’s silent film, (a far cry from the sexed-up, hyper-connected song that Gaga and Beyonce dish up MTV lovers). Never Tear Us Apart sounds scarily natural as does Halo. Rude Boy is epic and in two words: an improvement. Overall, an easy listen, and like a Christmas special from your favourite TV show, it’s lame but you enjoy it anyway. Bottom line: it’s going to attract pop-loving classical fans, rather than the other way around.

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