DATAROCK (Norway)
Norway’s Datarock have returned to the world of recording with Red, the follow up to their geek-chic party album of 2005, Datarock Datarock. Their debut mixed Happy Mondays punk-funk with warped Devo humour, and its single Computer Camp Love landed at #12 on Triple J’s Hottest 100. Red has lost none of the band’s aptitude for classic, nostalgic hooks, but it’s an altogether more concept-driven beast, a thoroughly unashamed love-letter to the influences that made Datarock what they are today. DEVO, Yellow Magic Orchestra, Talking Heads, Haruki Murakami, Don Delillo’s White Noise, Scott Walker, the works of John Hughes and Peter Greenaway, and even Molly Ringwald are all referenced. It’s pop cultural fluff, but Datarock make it meaningful by invoking these bands, people and texts as adults, a sharp reminder that we should always be having more fun. It’s both an abstract notion in an era of instant data retrieval, and the party album of 2009.
www.datarockmusic.com
www.myspace.com/datarock