Fluorescent Pea Pod
In Pod We Trust
Neo-Cultural Front
In an age when most electronica music is designed for a dance crowd, Orlando’s Pod has bent all the rules and created ten tracks of listener-friendly techno-pop tunes that can be appreciated outside a dance floor at rave night. All Pod members lend their hands at the songwriting on the disc, with a majority of the songs written by their guitarist/singer/keyboardist, Kirk Andrews.
I enjoyed two things in particular with this CD – first, the frequent mix of guitar in the mix of synthesizers, and second, the powerful female lead vocals of Tanya Michelle, who is not afraid to front a vocal variety from the sweet and demure to the hard-edged and masculine on songs like “Destination” and “Later For You.” If compared by genre to other local acts, the name that pops up is another hot local sensation in this genre, Brainiac’s Daughter from Clearwater. However, the only true similarities I see between the two bands is that both have a sultry, no-nonsense, female vocalist and both set precedents in their respective areas for being the “Euro-techno-children” in the plethora of Southern-style rock, male-fronted Florida alternative bands. Florescent Pea Pod’s strength lies in their ability to make each song a separate gem, whereas many techno sounds have tendencies to sound like one long song with a thousand background percussion effects. The background rhythms on this CD are distinct and well varied, and the choruses have a tendency to stick to the listener well after the CD has stopped playing.
Neo-Cultural Front Records, 977 Vineridge Run #307, Altamonte Springs, FL 32714
