Website: Teddy Bears
Ummmm… yeeeeeeeeeeeeah.
Such is not only the first thought upon seeing the cover of Teddy Bears’ Soft Machine, but also likely upon first listen as well. Is it disco trip-hop? Dancehall-influenced darkwave? Utterly ridiculous? Brilliantly hilarious? And then Iggy Pop shows up, and everyone’s heads explode.
Totally defying explanation, Soft Machine features such guest stars as the aforementioned Pop, Neneh Cherry, and Mad Cobra. There’s a healthy dose of happy smiley club sounds, vicious and intricate experimental sounds, and a sense of weirdness that permeates the entire thing. There’s disco everywhere. It’s like if the Chemical Brothers and the Scissor Sisters dropped acid together and ran with the ideas they brainstormed.
Some of this is quite forgettable. “Black Belt” and “Yours To Keep” aren’t going to be running around in your brain or begging you to hear them again anytime soon, and “Automatic Lover” is a vocoded mess. But “Ahead of My Time” is laid-back and hooky, “Punkrocker” is laced with Moog-like synth and peppy beats, and the minimalism of “Riot Going On” is one killer club mix away from magic.
Is it a mess? Oh, you bet. But there are some fascinating ideas. It just seems that most of them fail to come together, let alone create any sort of cohesive unit. Maybe it’s the diversity of styles, maybe it’s poor structure and forethought, maybe it’s all of the above. It has its moments, but perhaps with their next effort, Teddy Bears will focus less on being quirky and more on claiming their identity.
