Datarock: Red
Datarock returns with second album Red
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Wednesday, 03, Jun 2009 01:25
YAP/Nettwerk, out June 8th.
In a nutshell...
A soundtrack to the Noughties
What's it all about?
Red is the second full length album from Datarock, and is like taking a journey back through their artistic education. Fela Kuti, Afrika Bambaataa and Kraftwerk serve as a trio of musical inspiration, and (perhaps a little self-indulgently) using only technology before 1983 Datarock use this vibrant sound to unleash tributes to a mass of other influences including Devo, Haurki Murakami, and most obviously Talking Heads. But this is far more than a tribute album. Every one of the 12 tracks here has its own distinctive character, imbued with the sound sounds the past, yet feeling relevant and exciting at the same time.
Who's it by?
I first saw Datarock in 2007 at Roskilde Festival in Denmark. Playing to their native Scandinavian crowd they struck me as a tongue-in-cheek band, a set of Daft-Punk inspired jokers clad in matching red tracksuits. Seemingly novelty songs like Computer Camp Love an electronic take on the Grease song Summer Loving were amusing enough, but I wondered how much shelf life there was to an electro-parody band? But two years later and Datarock are back to show that they are far more than just a novelty act.
As an example...
"I wanna dance to Northern Soul, back in the Seventies." - Back In The Seventies
Likelihood of a trip to the Grammys
Red has the potential to elevate Datarock beyond the cult appeal of their first album. With enough anthems to guarantee radio airplay, this could be the album to thrust them into the mainstream consciousness. Chances of awards are minimal, but this is an album that should glean plenty of praise from the musically educated.
What the others say
"It's a breezy laugh, but a wee bit in-one-ear-out-the-other." - Clashmusic.com
"After a couple of listens, Red already sounds like a classic." - Contactmusic.com
So is it any good?
It may be my own tendencies of reflection on the past decade, the "Noughties", as they have been labelled, but for me Red strikes me as a brilliant indicator of our times. On the surface, there are enough 'hits' to keep pop audiences happy, and due to the wealth of musical influences on the album these all sound very different. Give It Up is an upbeat electro rock fusion, Dance! is a funky disco classic, Molly an anthemic lament, and Back In The Seventies culminates in an intense guitar riff that Bloc Party would be proud of. A couple of the tracks fall slightly short of the mark, drifting by unremarkably and disrupting the overall energy of the album. But overall this is high-quality stuff. The band have certainly retained their sense of fun, and in True Stories have written a song made up entirely of Talking Heads lyrics.
However, beyond the surface appeal there is something deeper here, in the lyrics and themes the album explores. In its self-conscious awareness of the past, that borders on the obsessive, Datarock seem to be holding a mirror to the "Noughties", a decade of information overload, where pop culture has eaten itself and nothing feels new anymore. The band are certainly aware on this creative void, and in opening track The Blog bombard the listener with references and soundbites, a musical interpretation of the data saturation of the internet. Yet, although the band are situated within the very context they lament, recreating the sounds of the past and contemplating the loss of eras gone by (Back in The Seventies), paradoxically it is through this reflection that Datarock create something new, fresh and exciting. An album that rises out of the ashes of the past. And it is this paradox I feel that sums up the decade and makes Red a fitting, pleasing soundtrack to the Noughties.
8/10
Greg Ash