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Single/Download Review
Katsen Basic Pleasure UnitThee SPC
Article written by
Matt H - Jan 18, 2010
Katsen - taking over our world
Hot on the heels of their marvellous It Hertz! album, vintage electronic popmeister Katsen are back with more of their crackling pop loveliness.
It might not be new, but they need no excuses for starting off with Where Nobody Can Find Us, found on the album and before. Deceptively deadpan and simple in construction, it’s a gorgeous and uplifting proper pop single that any band would give their right arm for.
The new tunes are more studied, but still juddering with life, Accidents in the Home is a somewhat glacial affair jittering and crackling along in a late 70s robo-pop style. A Soulless Party solders Depeche Mode, before they disappeared up their own arms, to a less affected Radiophonic Workshop sound. And A Pulse has classic early 80s “Oh oh oh” chorus adorned with the sort of beeps and whirrs that soundtracked many a late night/early morning grappling with block graphics computer games.
To round things off they revisit their affectionate Kraftwerk tribute Florian, making it a little less of a pastiche, but hanging onto the delicate melancholic warmth that makes it an utter delight. The touchstones may be familiar, but no-one puts the heart into electronic pop quite like these two. The handmade CDs have sold out before we’ve even got our copies, but it’s there for download. And you can always get the album too…
[Stop Press- apparently a few copies of the CD might be turning up at Norman Records for the last week of Jan - so anyone who still likes to own an artefact might still snap one up...]