I’ve been thinking a lot about techpop/rock recently, mostly in regards to Perfume’s take on it and what that meant to the Japanese music scene in 2009. Now welcome another band to add to the discussion – √thumm (Root Thumm from here on out).
Root Thumm play the same club-friendly electro Bang Bang Balloon produce. A laser-show worthy stream of electronic noises, driving beats, big choruses and vocals digitized to hell. On their MySpace page, give “NEU!” a spin and marvel at how they put all the focus on the catchy vocal hook, adding only a few bridges of skittering electronics and some guitar noodling. Root Thumm’s singing seems more modified than Balloon, the lead singer’s voice transformed into layers of electro-talk.
The trio (unless that big mouse dude is also in the band) will release their debut album coton on Dec. 2, and they’ve currently got a sampler of the songs on the LP on their MySpace.