Eight Bit Tiger: Parallel Synchronized Randomness
In the Chicago area, Love In October are local favorites. The indie pop quartet have had their music features on the national stage as the theme song for VH1’s Sex Rehab series but Chicago is where they have the most notoriety. The band’s core force is brothers, Erik and Kent Widman. But when the brothers decided they wanted to make dance punk, they didn’t want to take Love In October in a surprising new direction. Instead they created the spin off band, Eight Bit Tiger.
The idea of Eight Bit Tiger is nothing really revolutionary: angular post punk guitars over bass-heavy disco beats. Listening to the duo’s debut album, Parallel Synchronized Randomness I thought I was in love. “Bad Advice” starts with heavy disco bass over a house beat that sounds straight out of a Hercules and Love Affair track. But three minutes in, something strange happens…lyrics. The unfortunate part is that there is singing at all. The track’s grooves are fit enough to stand on their own and the duo sullies the track by repeating endlessly the line “jumping in an elevator makes it go faster.” I don’t know if it is the inanity of the lyrics that bother me or the repetitiveness, but it just seems to kill the song.
Luckily the band does manage to overcome their issues. “Cameo” ends up sounding like Chromeo remixing No Doubt‘s cover of “It’s My Life.” Its got that modern electrofunk feel but with a distinct 80s nod. “Training Wheels” sounds like the Castlevania theme song being blasted out of speakers so it gets a nice lofi distortion. “The Night” mixes the guitars of Gang of Four with the new wave/funk of Electric Six.
It is so hard to describe the album because each track seems to bring something different to the table but what stays consistent is every song is ready to dance to. The lyrics are sometimes lacking on Parallel Synchronized Randomness but the party is never perfect. If you’re looking for an album to just put on and have fun to, Eight Bit Tiger’s debut would suffice.
Rating: 7.0/10
MP3: Eight Bit Tiger “Bad Advice”
Buy: iTunes
Eight Bit Tiger: Parallel Synchronized Randomness
