Stockholm's icy minimalists, and abysmal post punk envelope-pushers, Holograms are back with Surrender, their third full-length and first for Push My Buttons, and its just in time for the winter freeze to set in here in America. Jutting out from behind a thunderous backbone and delicate and spidery guitar interplay, you instantly hear Robert Smith's inflection, but Holograms are really a lot more complex than a simple rip off, as each track develops it's own personality, and it just gets darker and bleaker from there. From jarring post punk anthems to somber and sludgy death rock cavity-fillers, this band isn't pulling any punches on their state of everlasting discontent. And those strings are really a nice touch.
After two LPs on Captured Tracks, the band has come back to Sweden and nested with one of the best labels going in Stockholm and this new LP might not exactly sound symmetrical to the gnarly punk bands the label usually proffers, yet it still fits in with anyone with an ounce of taste. Gothy, murky lullabies for yesterday's New Romantics, or stiff pop gestures from today's despondent realists? It's all working together to pull together a lurid grayness, a thick fog of morosity you didn't think was possible, a new state of suspended sadness, coupled with a stark, beaming light flickering through at the edges. It's a slow punk masterpiece for fans of Pink Reason, Christian Death, Kitchens Floor, and Total Control, so don't rest on your laurels and grab this LP while you can.
Demand it at your local record shop or order direct from Push My Buttons, right HERE.
STREAM the LP here...
