Various Artists - Electric Fantastic Sound No.1

Johan Billing, which is probably mostly famous for his years in the Swedish cult band S.P.O.C.K., is behind this newly formed label Electric Fantastic Sound and their first release is a sampler with Johan's own band Diskodiktator, The Gothenburg band Top Gun which partly are Tony, who's one of the founders of Romo Night. Further more we have the boys from Malmo, Basswood Dollies, where the two members have roots in bands like Cat Rapes Dog and Hype.

As you might know these are pretty experienced guys within the genre, but how does it sound then? Diskodiktator contributes with the tracks "I Turned My Back On Rock ''n'' Roll" and "Take It Out On Your Friends" which is really swinging and catching electro pop. I actually find it pretty good even though I think the chorus in the first mentioned track would probably be much better if it were a little bit more powerful.

Next up is Top Gun which contributes with "Mind of a boy" and "Girl Obsolete". It's not that unexpected that the band plays synthpop with influences from the 80's. Even though I don't find this that exciting I still think it's well-produced and have catchy melodies. I'm pretty sure that Top Gun will continue to perform live within our borders and that their music will probably catch the synthpop clubs attention.

Last but not least we have Basswood Dollies. John Lindqwister and Joel Lindqvist surprised me very positively when I received their latest demo for review. I liked their raw and unpolished electro, but I unfortunately have to say that the most of that feeling have disappeared with their latest contributes in form of "Hateworld" and "We Are Truth". I'm still able to hear the sound buried deep below in the background and I encourage the gentlemen to exercise voodoo to get the sound to crawl out of its grave and return to life.

A fun split EP which shows that the Swedish electronic pop music might have a future and I think it's just a question of time before we will see some official album releases.

This review was written 2005 and initially published on Neurozine.com Jan 01 2005