Music Review: The S1nd1cate

The S1nd1cate is a band you might not have heard of yet-- but you should definitely give a try. I recently had a chance to hear a few tracks off their upcoming album "Reloaded", and I was pleasantly impressed.

Most bands with a gimmick are either extremely theatrical, or run toward campy. Not these guys. On their site, they profess a theme story that has futuristic elements of corporate drones, conspiracy, and shirt-and-tie revolutionaries. However, the music is very direct, and leaves behind any overbearing overtones, and merely runs with the theme. It gives their sound a hard-edged cyber working culture sound that both rocks heavy, and has a layered electronic element with a danceable beat that in several tracks would sound right at home in a cyberpunk or gothic-industrial club.

I've been seeing a trend lately in bands that have been minimal in members, but sport a very rich sound, and The S1nd1cate is definitely among the ranks of the slick and listen-worthy. The duo pack a lot of effort, style and energy into each song. One of the notable tracks I previewed was "Give It Up", a hard-edged and in your face track that makes me hope their live performance has even half the energy packed into this song. Another favorite was "Never Forgotten", a song that accomplishes a remarkable feat in my opinion-- it utilizes the vocoder in a manner that doesn't automatically set my teeth on edge. I normally find vocoder sounds irritating at best, but this song is a catchy, memorable tune that I fully expect to hear at my favorite club. The duo also cover an old favorite-- Oingo Boingo's "Dead Man's Party"--with a fresh, modern veneer that makes me smile.

The album releases on 3-6-09, and can be obtained on their website, iTunes, or cdbaby.
I've already got my copy on reserve.