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"Down underground, there is a sound, look around and you'll find we're the sound" --Stylex Every once in a great while, a local band comes along who make all the superlatives ring true. That band is Stylex. After a shaky start in 1998, this four-piece have gone from strength-to-strength, forging a dynamic electronic sound that combines the hypnotic best of seminal electronic rock acts such as Devo, Brainiac, and Suicide along with the passion and frenzy of the hardest hardcore bands. Over the years, Stylex have developed something of a cult following in Bowling Green and their live shows are a must-see spectacle of supercharged electronic energy. Hot on the heels of their well-received debut release "Wonder Program," Stylex's Brian Kantorski, Jeff Loose, Joel Roberts, and Dustin Hostetler have given us another jolt of infectious noise in the shape of a 7-song CD entitled "False Start." Released on Michigan's Friction Records (who picked up their first disc last year), "False Start" is anchored by dark pumping basslines, skirling synths, and a mixture of machinebeats and live drums which perfectly accent the cyborg ambience which is Stylex's trademark sound. Hostetler's plaintive lead vocals punctuate the frenzy like a man drowning in a sizzling sea of overheated electrical undertows and buzzing currents. The best track "Duress" captures this feel perfectly. Kantorski's galloping rollercoaster bassline propels us into a crackling alienated world of panic and passion, a world where cheap illusions give way to an all-too familiar loneliness of dislocation, despair, defiance. "You don't know, and it's alright. We shut all the porch doors and stay up late everynight. Look at what you've done. Turn around, don't make a sound. Talk me down, no one's around now." Buy this CD. You can catch Stylex live on February 8 at the South Gate House in Cincinnati, OH with White Heat, Shesus, and Chalk. |