By snoadmin
Stardeath and White Dwarfs’ debut album, “The Birth,” revamps acid rock with sexy disco drums and fancy hip-hop bass riffs.
The four-member Oklahoma band is part of the next generation of psychedelic electro-disco bands. All of their songs combine the fancy technological sounds of Pink Floyd with the hip dance beats and bumping bass of the 2000s generation. Three of the band members already gained quite a reputation as former road crew members of the Flaming Lips concert tour.
The band’s opening song, “The Sea is On Fire” layers so many creepy synthesizer sounds over Casey Joseph’s bass that it sounds more like the devil’s rendition of “God Only Knows.” The song especially sounds like a scary stoner film when a kettle whistle whines over a dissonant organ in the background, while singer/songwriter Dennis Coyne sings, “You think you look like the fortunate one/But your life, it doesn’t look like much fun, yeah!”
Other songs, such as the album’s first single, “New Heat,” sound especially intense. In this song, Joseph plays a biting, blaring bass riff to the reckless cymbal smashing of drummer Matt Duckworth. But the song soars with beautiful ecstasy in the chorus, when the keyboardists play a flurry of dazzling computer beeps and string sounds, while Coyne sings “I think I lost myself, and I don’t know where we are/It’s hard to take control when you know you’ve gone too far.”
Stardeath and White Dwarfs are sometimes a tad too dependent on the noisy synchronized buzz of the electric guitar and bass. By the time listeners reach the title track they might get tired of the same old slow beat, lazy bass and guitar riffs.
Coyne also tends to copy the Flaming Lips’ music and lyrics a little too closely. For example, the surreal lyrics and acoustic guitar strums in the ballad “The Age of the Freak” sound way too similar to the Flaming Lips song “Waiting for Superman.” He should try and perform songs with more original sounds and lyrics.
Thankfully, the band shows off a much richer disco-pop sound when Duckworth kicks up the beat in the instrumental jam, “Those Who are From the Sun Return to the Sun.” Joseph opens the song with a fast, computer-like bass riff, while Duckworth goes nuts playing rapid-fire drum rolls on the snare and the tom-toms. It all sounds extremely busy and frenetic, but so incredibly funky at the same time.
Stardeath and White Dwarfs’ first album, “The Birth,” is an excellent debut for these Oklahoma rockers. Although the buzzing reverb noises tend to screech too loudly, the LP is mixed extremely well, with reverse cymbal sounds, guitar squeaks and dreamy echo effects. It is a truly blissful disco-rock orgy from hell. Hands down, “The Birth” is one of the biggest sleeper hits of 2009.
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