Mickey Callisto is a flamboyant, space-obsessed frontman in the lineage of his professed hero Freddie Mercury: upfront, outrageous and without a trace of irony, he filters the theatrics of Queen in their royal pomp with the sparkling Electro-Disco pioneered by Giorgio Moroder.
Photo Credit: Luke Bryant
Mickey's new EP ‘Homospace’ seems like a mission statement in its harvest of each of these integral elements to his musical persona. The lyrics outline a LGBTQ+ utopia in the void of space (“leave all your woes behind you / let yourself go and feel the breakthrough”): what once seemed like a cold vacuum devoid of life becomes a potential for flourishing in comparison to the unappealing homophobia rampant on Earth. Of course, it could also be a representation of finding a literal space to feel comfortable with oneself, a more down-to-earth aspiration than its initial celestial connotations.
Musically, the track bursts into prismatic light, all aglow with percolating arpeggiators dancing freely alongside spurts of burbling bass. Its execution is so unashamed in its gaudiness that it becomes as liberating as the words gliding atop it.
It’s a fantastic show of strength from Callisto, setting himself up as a space-age, 21st century challenger to his pop idols.
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