Continuing their exploration of indie-electro-guitar-pop-weirdness, Reptar returns with their second full-length album, Lurid Glow. A diverse amalgamation of sounds and styles delineate the music of Reptar, culminating from the band’s disparate array of influences. Comparisons can be made to bands like Talking Heads and MGMT, but Reptar simultaneously showcases musicianship in the heritage of Frank Zappa, Rush, Mike Patton, and Tortoise - creating a blend of party music suitable for music nerds...

For those of who grew up in the '80s Reptar's sound is a little like a collection of our memories squashed into these 10 songs (41 min, 10 sec). Not only are there numerous nods to '80s songs, but there's also the odd tipping of the hat to some of the home computer sound of the period.

Without a doubt you'll spend the entire time thinking: "Hmm, that sound like...;" or "That reminds me of..." Which, depending on your point of view is either this album's charm or the thing that will make you dislike it.

There was an episode of The Office in which David Brent started playing a guitar and singing a song he claimed to have written himself. It was obvious that he'd just cobbled together famous songs and chosen sections from each of them and then strung them together. Lurid Glow, on one level, is a little like this - although obviously they haven't plagiarised their tracks like Brent did.

Personally I found this, oddly enough, a fresh and invigorating sound that is hard not to warm to.

8

Nick Smithson