Berlin’s Neonman is composed of Ben John Osborn from London, UK and Bastian Asdonk from Berlin, Germany. Together they make post-punk rock that at times swooshes and sashays with a punk ferocity and other times confidentlstrides plods forward with a signifigant dub and reggae influence. At their best they call to mind the post punk explosion of the late 70′s and early 80′s. Imagine XTC merging with Public Image Ltd, their music is something like that.
January 14, 2009
Neon Man’s "Knights of Error" is Full of Chimey Charming Guitar
October 26, 2008
The Banshee’s "Your Nice Habits" is akin to a Grad Student with Intravenous Caffiene. In a good way.
The Banshee are an electro/punk band from Genova Italy. Their post punk stylings call to mind the likes of Gary Numan, XTC, wire, Talking Heads and many others. Their music is rife with angled jagged riffs and huge grooves with gooey bass filling.
Their debut album Your Nice Habits features production from former Clor member Luke Smith, who has also produced such bands as Shit Disco, frYars,
Theoretical Girl and he’s now working on the new Depeche Mode album. His influence can be felt on the twitchy rhythms and loud quiet tensions that can be found on many of the songs.
For all of their intelligence and desire to be a unique quirky bunch of skinny white boys from Europe, their music doesn’t always sound a lot different. They have a lot of nearly impossibly complicated all over the place plunked melodies and rhythms similar to that of Clor or Shit Disco that are incredibly catchy, but sometimes it’s a bit much. While they don’t bring much new to the table in the terms of their format as an indie electro punk band, they execute their ideas flawlessly, and they show incredible potential when they poke some air holes in their grooves on closing tracks “People Around” and “Colder”.
At it’s core, Your Nice Habits, is like a college student at 4am with a quart of caffeine circulating his veins and ADD thoughts flashing in his mind of partying, papers, and prudent action in our day and times.
