A DRAMA QUEEN FACES THE PRESS AFTER CRASH OUT OF COSMIC PROPORTIONS
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Melancholic Melodrama
Melancholic Melodrama is a story about the contradictions and tensions of the escapist fantasy of becoming a popstar. Driven by industrial pop sound design, the album provides a fictionalized intimation of the musician’s confrontation with her own standing over her artistic practice by telling the story of an artist who gives up her humanity in a Faustian bargain to become The Popstar.
The album explores the deliberations leading to this decision as well as the consequent spiral into nine circles of hell of her own making as she gets entangled in the spotlight, tacked onto tabloid headlines, and the many scandals that surround her every move. In the end, she cracks when she realizes the extent and depth of the personal sacrifices that she made to pave the way for The Popstar, facing her yearning for everyone she threw away and overwhelmed with grief at her losses — above all the loss of herself in the mix. The artwork, for example, depicts the artist stabbing her own heart, a prop that was featured as the centerpiece of her previous album lovers (confusing and messy is what i am here for).
Cassette tapes, limited run as first-ever physical release
Available for order on Bandcamp
music production and performance
From early scrappy artistry to sharply precise music productions, pseudo-antigone is the experimental pop and hyperpop project of philosopher and interdisciplinary artist Simone Atenea Medina Polo. Since 2020, the project has been a site of experimentation and learning in music production, mixing, and mastering eventually paving the way for detailed and meticulous sound design with heart-on-sleeve lyricism that leans into metallic synth textures, loud fuzzy basses, and punchy beats characterizing her most recent releases. The project has been received enthusiastically as she joined festival line ups like Winterruption 2021 and Purple City 2024 as well as climbed her way through various college radio station charts across Canada and the United States.
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From media coverage:
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“...Into the Void of Infinite Sadness, a spectacularly moving achievement of hyperpop: the frenetic, almost-satirical-but-also-legit, genre-flipping style of bouncing, exaggerated pop, which basically inhabits any genre.”
(Edmonton Journal)
“Each track delivers tongue-in-cheek, intellectual progressivism through its lyrics, carefully woven into a project inspired by experimental pop producers.” (Exclaim!)
“The entire outing is full of tunes that ooze sass and humour, which is ironic given the title and the fact that the record definitely seems steeped in emotion. It’s also steeped in intellectualism, and I loved the density of the lyrics combined with the unabashedly goofy aesthetics. This is a really fun record that also has emotional gravitas, stupidly catchy hooks, progressive production techniques and generally great songwriting.”
(Cups N Cakes Network)
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““When Things Go And Set You Back” builds on the sound that pseudo-antigone has been refining for years now; it’s a club-worthy earworm, but with a flare for chopping and screwing sounds together in ways that are stylish and surreal. And the surreal nature of the work is purposeful: Simone Atenea Medina Polo, the artist behind pseudo-antigone, based the album around a loose narrative that examines the fantasy of stardom in a way that only pseudo-antigone can.” (Cups N Cakes Network)
Radio Chart Highlights:
#1 CJSR’s Electronic Top 10 – March 11 and March 18 2025
#2 CJSR’s Top 30 – March 18 2025
#8 earshot’s National Electronic Chart – March 11 2025
#1 CJSF’s Top 30 – November 2, 2021
#2 CJSW’s Electronic Top 10 – April 6 and April 13, 2021
#4 CJSW’s Top 30 – April 6, 2021
lovers (confusing and messy is what i am here for)
lovers (confusing and messy is what i am here for) returns to an emotional thematic and conceptual core which characterized my earlier releases. The album looks at love and the manifold of experiences that surround it. The album as a whole critically assesses me and the experiences I've experienced, all of it while trying to retain this outlook on the affirmation of love and its multifaceted nature.
The tracks delve into early failures at love, the nuances of reconciliation after the breakdown of a relationship, the frustrations of neglecting and feeling neglected in loving, the love of friendship, self-love, infatuation, compassionate break ups, as well as liberating breaks. The album returns to an open, honest, and vulnerable core going into the lyricism that became the touchstone for the entire record and the project as such. Personally, it was a difficult album to write for at times, although at others it was certainly uplifting and hopeful.
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"The record is sharp and focused. Highly energetic electro-dance-pop music makes up the backdrop for an extremely vulnerable record about all aspects of love. There’s lots to enjoy on this release but “childishness” really stands out and could be one of the best songs in the pseudo-antigone catalogue."
