The Talking Heads have influenced a lot of musicians; you can hear the ghost of David Byrne in most toe-tapping indie bands these days. But Electro Rock? When was the last time you were at a club and thought about “Making Flippy Floppy?”
Datarock – “True Stories”
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Yet here is Datarock, with an alternate-reality view of Electro music. Sure, Fred Falke loves his 80′s synthesizers, and Justice samples almost exclusively from that era, but those tracks stand in the 00′s and look back to a better time. Datarock’s Red belongs in the 80′s: frontman Fredrik Saroea croons sweet nothings to Molly Ringwald on the track “Molly.” The lyrics to “True Stories” are exclusively pulled from Talking Heads titles. Datarock didn’t simply put a hypercolor windbreaker on their album; they built it entirely from Lycra and shoulder pads. From the opening cheers of “The Blog,” to the closing jazz guitars of “New Days Dawn,” David Bowie’s Plastic Soul stands in the midst, nodding and agreeing. The references are all there: from a “Sweet Child O’ Mine” sounding synth riff to open the album, to a “Roxanne” guitar track in “Back in the Seventies.” While Datarock’s antics come off as slightly goofy (their choreography-sprinkled shows might upset those with hipster sentiments), and the album lacks a definite focal point, the fresh take on a retro sound is enough to keep even the most stoic GenX-er grinning for 40 minutes. And for the rest of us: get ready to shake your jumpsuit-covered ass.
