The Return: DAT Politics, Aelters, Sonig stuff

Ahh.

Perhaps it has been the holidays, perhaps it has been the lack of appeal in writing about DAT Politics. I think I have gone off them. They don't give me a headache per se, but there is something kind of formless about their first three albums and the charms of their fourth has worn off. All of their stuff is chiptuneish, albeit well before people really talked about chiptunes.

The first two albums, Tracto Flirt and Villiger don't really have pieces as much as loops. Honestly, I put these down to the electronica boom of the late 90s, since not much sticks out.

The 3rd album, Plugs Plus, goes more poppy, but it doesn't quite work for me, I don't know why. More SID sounds, some vocals, I don't know. I think that there's not enough structure for my taste.

Go Pets Go is much better than the first 3 albums, and has much more discipline as far as composition goes, but there's something a little bit, I don't know, twee about it. It's very cute, and there's some good programming, but it may grate a little if cute is not your thing.

Aelters is one of the former members of DAT P doing mashups of sorts, very frenetic and spastic? I have never really gained foothold on this album, cause I can't see where the songs on it are. It's worth a listen, since there's definitely something going on there, I just don't know what.

Vert - Ah, Sonig. Mouse On Mars' label, which features a number of bands which often sound like, but not as good as, Mouse On Mars. Happily, Vert's Nine Types Of Ambiguity is a cut above this, and has some really nice textures and half-melodies. There's also a really odd coincidence that part of the track To Doo Is To Be sounds remarkably similar to Chris Clark's Lord Of The Dance off of Clarence Park. Check it out, and file next to Iaora Tahiti or Autoditacker for dreamy, hazy sound.

Holosud - This involves one of the guys who helped MoM out with programming back in the day, and it is a feast of squelch. It doesn't have the pop or melody of MoM, but it is a good listen, it's closer to a dance-floor version of what they got up to in the 90s, and it definitely shows FX Randomiz as someone who knows their way around a synth.