Bodypop And One Artist

German synth trio {|And One|} have traditionally had a bit of a hard {|industrial|} edge to their completely {|electronic|} sound, but on {|Bodypop|}, their first album for the {|Out of Line|} label, that hint of aggression is all but absent. In its ... Read more

German synth trio {|And One|} have traditionally had a bit of a hard {|industrial|} edge to their completely {|electronic|} sound, but on {|Bodypop|}, their first album for the {|Out of Line|} label, that hint of aggression is all but absent. In its place, {|Bodypop|} sounds like pure 1982 {|synth pop|}: think {|Depeche Mode|}'s {|A Broken Frame|}, {|Soft Cell|}'s {|Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret|} and {|Yaz|}'s {|Upstairs at Eric's|}. Sounding like it was recorded entirely on instruments that were state of the art a quarter-century earlier, {|Bodypop|} is absolutely uncanny in its evocation of a long-gone sound, one that's so resolutely out of fashion that it feels paradoxically fresh and forward-looking in a way that {|synth pop|} hasn't in decades. Highlights include the near-{|ambient|} experimentation of {|Traumfrau|} (the one song that sounds more like the comparatively more {|experimental|} {|Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark|} or {|Thomas Dolby|}) and {|Love You to the End,|} a straight-up {|pop|} song that sounds uncannily like a lost {|Depeche Mode|} single from the {|Construction Time Again|} era. ~ Stewart Mason Less