Some albums sound mellow, some albums sound radio friendly and some albums just sound angry. “Obscene” from Minnesota based band Popstars most certainly sounds angry.
Now, I like angry. If I want musical elegance then I can listen to Mozart but sometimes you just need to turn up the volume and make enemies of your neighbours and these four songs will make an excellent additional to your sonic arsenal should you decide that the man in the apartment upstairs has to go. Subtlety isn’t on the menu here with the motive power behind these songs being fuelled by early electro and hardcore metal riffs so you won’t be falling asleep listening to this EP either. That’s for sure.
Melody, such as it can even exist in this maelstrom of samples, percussion and distilled aggression, is used sparingly as the intent is always to assault the listener’s ears with enough shards of looped anger to guarantee that Popstar’s determined angularity will stay with you long after your ears have stopped bleeding.
Popstars – aka Alec Tonjes and Lars Oslund – live in the urban jungle and sound like they would hunt you down and eat you. I like that attitude more than I like Sophie Ellis-Bextor. Or maybe not. After all, Sophie Ellis-Bextor is sparkly.