Thursday, June 05, 2008

The most ubiquitous men in Scandanavian music make up half of I Are Droid. A bionic fusion of pre, post and prog fragments brewed cask strength.

Konie Ehrencrona and Jens Lagergren have teamed up with Peder Bergstrand and Fredrik Bergström to create the cool frankenstein that is “I Are Debut” (Razzia). Their influences, according to their myspace - where you can hear the whole album - are listed as "wine, midgets and reversed circus music - in that order".

Sonically, I detect elements of BÖC, (Systems of Romance, pre-Midge) Ultravox!, Big country-esque dynamics and even Franz flippin’ Ferdinand. Some mighty sounding stuff, majestic even - without falling foul of the pomposity that often befalls such a beastie. I can think of no better complement to describe the closing strains of “Before The Fall” than it could have come from “Secret Treaties”.

IAD are packing the kind of sound that could sweep the world. My brother reckons that there’s more than a touch of the Foo Fighters about them. My own opinion is that Grohl’s crew throw great rock shapes but have no songs, the Droid do and they fit the sensurround like a glove. With the chops to turn yer average arena into a church, a sweet lightshow would clinch the deal and make them virtually unstoppable. Like one of the machines they take their moniker from, there's some kind of unbridled electricity running through these collective veins and "I Are Debut" is quite the cattle prod.
Norton News for June.