Synthetik

The ‘synth’ part of UK duo Komputer’s new album is its only rewarding part. Combined with a fascination for Bowie’s smoky vocal style circa ‘Ashes To Ashes’, infectious synth hooks are audible on ‘Headphones And Ringtones’ and ‘Blackie’ – the first electronic track dedicated to a missing cat – while on ‘Liquid Gold’, they deliver an adept paean to the shiny futurism that Kraftwerk conceived during the ‘70s. Unfortunately, too much of this album is taken up with annoying, repetitive dirges like ‘Rain’ and ‘Gloopy’, or ill-advised efforts to make abstract techno, which does not kompute.