bis - The New Transistor Heroes
How famous are bis? And what for? Well, let’s list all the tired pop-tastic facts about the Scottish trio. They appeared on Top of the Pops when they were still unsigned. They released their early EP’s (one of them the very famous Secret Vampire Soundtrack featuring the cheery candy pop) with their own money. And, of course, they were hounded by all the top record companies.
The debut album The New Transistor Heroes has been a while in coming now and so has been awaited with baited breath by a lot of their fans. We have Manda Rin, Sci-fi Steve and John Disco here on many a pop outing worthy of their status as the industry’s favourite kids. Short, sharp and, er, chirpy numbers adorn this album like jewellry would on Mr.T and are sung, sorry, shouted out with tremendous gusto. More often than not, this takes place with all members of the band, too. One word, energy, springs to mind when listening to this lot. They are in a real rush to get somewhere and they seem to have scant time for singing anything along the way and this seemingly results in a set of three-minute panic-attacks. Sometimes it’s difficult to understand what Manda is actually saying due to her peculiar pronunciation of some of the words but you get used to it.
The songs cover a wide range of topics from setting the trio up as some sort of rights protesters in Tell it to the kids to how pop stars can be dead, dead nasty people in Popstar Kill. Then there’s a desire to be an eighties film star (why?) in Starbright Boy where they want ‘big hair, permed and curly...looking mean and surly’ .
One question needs to be asked, though. Why all the fuss? Yeah, bis are bringing a nuance of something different and exciting to the music industry but they can get really annoying after about half an hour by which time they begin to sound like whiny three-year olds. Surely this must have registered onto people? I’ve been told that they are excellent live and I can well imagine that. Perhaps they are just not a band you can listen to on a stereo at home for too long. Until I do see them live, I think I’ll reserve my final judgement...(5)
Alo
