Barcelona
Social Engineering EP
March
Last year, Barcelona’s simonBASIC made the boarding up of my home in preparation to Hurricane Floyd’s arrival almost seem like fun. “Sunshine Delay” and “Indian Names” made for an enjoyably pop soundtrack to the drilling of holes into cinderblock and pounding of nails into plywood. Social Engineering is actually the first single off the upcoming zero-one-infinity release, and it shows that Barcelona still mixes ludicrously catchy ’80s analog pop with ludicrously geeky computer references. The opening “Robot Trouble” tells the tale of cybernetic friends and disapproving parents. Trevor hollAnd’s remix of “Sunshine Delay” is included for completists, and the EP closes out with a cover of Men Without Hits, er, Hats’ “Pop Goes the World.”
March Records, 51 Main Street, Hastings On Hudson, NY 10706; http://www.marchrecords.com