Bloated Kat Records, August 7, 2020 (cassette re-release)
The Sleeping Aides & Razorblades kind of warp power pop into something weird and wrong and oh so good.
Japan’s The Sleeping Aides & Razorblades are going to melt some brains. This is the first I’m hearing of them, but I quickly noted the Exploding Hearts-referencing band name and the weirdo artwork and felt like something was off. I checked out a pretty bare-bones Bandcamp page that seemed loaded with pop culture references (a sort of John Hughes collage) and felt like something was more off. And then I actually listened to this record, a cassette re-release of their 2015 release Favorite Synthetic.
As I heard weirdo warped power pop songs tumbling from my speakers, I kind of had a flashback to a bunch of years ago, to when I first heard My Bloody Valentine’s Loveless record. The moment I heard Loveless, I thought my copy was messed up somehow (as many apparently did). The music seemed off, dragging, underwater, and otherworldly in a way that didn’t make sense but sounded so right. I get a similar sense listening to Favorite Synthetic. That’s not to say the records sound remotely similar, only to say that they elicit a similar feeling.
The Sleeping Aides & Razorblades are a power pop band at heart. They’ve got hooks for days, reveling in the great singalong melodies and the loose, energetic, and rambunctious bounces and pops that Portland greats The Exploding Hearts did so well. The gorgeous ringing guitar riff, shambling hi-hats, and fuzzy bass sound so great on “I Don’t Wanna Hanging Out” and the vocal hooks are earworms, bathed in reverb and bent effects. Same goes for “Glory Of Love”, with a wonderfully repetitive lead guitar and some of the catchiest rhythm guitar and bass parts on the whole record. And “I Hate Rock ‘N Roll” is one of my favorites, with lead guitars beaming in from all over the place, dripping sounds from the heavens over top sugar-sweet power pop fuzz and a cool vocal hook. I can’t keep track of what I’m hearing, and it’s glorious.
And the Favorite Synthetic opening salvo of “Paranoia In The World”, “My Strange Headache”, and “Poison Heart” sort of takes my breath away. “Paranoia” is a slow motoring pretty ambient thing with all sorts of super gorgeous spacey synths smeared over some slow burn drums and bass, with vocals coming in and sounding otherworldly. “Headache” is some more of this maximalist space pop stuff, this time with a faster drum beat and more layers of effects. It sounds good through speakers, but even cooler through headphones. And the guitar lead and noise burst starting around the two-forty mark is spectacularly noisy. “Poison Heart” seems to change things up a bit, doing more of a driving muted thing with some really pretty guitar lead on the bridge, but the chorus goes full-on with another great vocal hook and some berserk synth that swallows everything up.
I could go on and on. I’ve listened to Favorite Synthetic a bunch now and haven’t skipped past anything yet. I don’t alway know what’s going on and I can’t really figure out ways to describe it, but it’s catchy and off and otherworldly and it hits just right for me.
You might like this if:
- You want to hear a new kind of warped weirdo power pop
You might not if:
- You get freaked out by records that don’t want to play things straight
ryan is a reviewer and news editor for TGEFM. He’s very secretive, he might be an alien.
