Who said noise can’t be chill?
Commander 🙂 certainly didn’t, as emphasised by the “smiley face” in their name (which is how it is actually pronounced, just for those who may still be questioning my mental health with these titles).
Lo-Fi Electronica at their core, Commander 🙂 flesh their sound out with soothing guitars and echoes of extreme distortion, with minimalistic use of vocals and samples to round things off. Starberry Perzervz is in many ways an album entirely comprised of the experimental interludes we used to get back when bands actually tried.
It may not sound like something that could hold up for an entire album, but unpredictability lends the lengthy runtime a favour with a mix of snappy beats, loose timings and tongue-in-cheek humour occasionally tossed in for good measure. Not to mention the shifts in musical styles, with hip-hop influences shining bright, but also getting a bit of funk on and diving into some smooth jazz (which seems to be the new crossover thang, or the new “nu” of the current decade. As much as you may hate jazz, some bands have been twisting it into incredible forms, and I don’t just mean Viagra Boys, check out Unstoppable Sweeties Show who we covered a few years back, or that band with a smiley face in their name. End of tangent.)
The result is an album that mostly feels like it should be background music, or at least destinated to lose your attention, but Starrberry Perzervz pulls more than enough strings to keep the entire album earning your focus.
A welcome addition to the recent “music to ride along with this world’s never ending fuckery with” theme we have found ourselves running, Commander 🙂 are another welcome to the genre defying, enjoyably bleak pocket of audio that we all need in our lives right now.
If there’s one thing you need to know, opening with the track titled DEBT, Starrberry Perzervz releases the day after the UK has officially re-entered a recession. If that doesn’t inevitably make this album the soundtrack to 2024, I don’t know what does…
Jake Hancke – 15/02/2024
Starrberry Perzervz is available on one of those new fangled compact discs from Philip K Discs
You can find more on Commander 🙂 at their BandCamp
The Cauteriser 
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