“joy_electric”
Joy Electric
Robot Rock
Tooth and Nail/BEC
It’s become a cliché that current popular musical styles keep getting rehashed from approximately 20 years before. Guess what? Now it’s time for the ’80s to return with a vengeance. True, cheesy and not-so-cheesy old ’80s acts have been pretty hip for the last number of years, but there hasn’t been as much new music with the same New Wave styles coming out recently.
But with releases by bands such as Monaco, Moog Cookbook, the Pulsars, and now Joy Electric, it might be time to dust off those parachute pants and velcro ‘Roos shoes. On their third full length, Joy Electric are single-minded in their purpose: they will make you love old synthesizers in just a half an hour. It can come across as a little monotonous at times, but overall, they are pretty good New Wave emissaries.
The sound comes across as a mixture of Devo, Thomas Dolby, the Human League and New Order. The songs are catchy and happy-sounding as hell with little bits of oddity strewn throughout the nostalgic trip. You will definitely think of your old Atari, Casio keyboards, and The Breakfast Club while listening to this album.
But you’d better at least be able to tolerate a lot of synth. If you can, Robot Rock should make a nice retro-dance addition to your collection and will also give those young techno whippersnappers a nice history lesson. BEC Recordings, 810 3rd Avenue #410-20, Seattle, WA 98104
