START A PEOPLE

Armed with vocoders, Novatrons, and a liberated sense of music strictly as art, this mysterious group of mad scientists makes some very neat stuff and with frequent but perfectly added surface noise, Black Moth Super Rainbow's Start a People is much like finding some funky old LP in the dollar box at a b&m record shop, taking it home, and being both appalled and enraptured at the nerve someone had putting this stuff to vinyl.

But there's something there that makes you keep it, something interesting, unique, just plain fun, maybe important but probably not, and eventually, maybe years or decades later, you pull it out and listen and realize why you thought it was so fascinating in the first place. These nameless five want us to forget it's an arty emulation, they want us to feel as if we're experiencing a real artifact of music history's bloated and dingy past, and it works beautifully. BMSR is often termed "experimental", "neopsychedelic", "Indietronic", "synthpop" and a variety of other labels all fair, none of which capture their sound. There is no denying the Chiptune/bitpop presence, suggesting a group of guys reared on videogames and perfectly happy to simulate that culture in rock. Slightly warped 'Raspberry Dawn' and its in-the-hood gangsta fever, streetwise 'Vietcaterpillar', urban arcade adventures of 'I am the Alphabet', dreamy 'I Think it is Beautiful That You Are 256 Colors Too' is reminiscent of the loop-driven postrock of Tortoise, and large 'Count Backwards to Black' & 'Early 70s Gymnastics' evokes that decade's UFO pop subculture. Think Leonard Nimoy's In Search Of.

Full on Atari 8-bit Family explosions for 'Folks With Magic Toes', 'Trees and Colors and Wizards' contrasted nicely by d. kyler's drums, 'Hazy Field People' is a layered and lush reprise, and jazzy hidden cut 'Smile Heavy' is a fantastic old-fashioned electronic prog ditty.

Very cool if you're in the mood for something different, these gameboys put on no pretenses and represent a tiny but special place in the experimental art-rock galaxy.