Silicon Heartbeat

Reviews

Silicon Heartbeat 2889 EP

SILICON HEARTBEAT is a perfect horror rock/punk band for spooky season, but also year-round. These guys are so strange in the best way. I really enjoyed the variety of more punk songs to the weirder, more synth-heavy ones. With clear distorted bass lines sprinkled throughout ghost-like synths, they create an eerie vibe that seems to linger. They end their EP with a fantastic cover of KRAFTWERK’s “The Model;” a bit more reminiscent of BIG BLACK’s cover, but more otherworldly. Just by checking out their album cover, you know you’re in for an unearthly good time.

Silicon Heartbeat MT0001 cassette

Fantastic Great Lakes beach punk from Kalamazoo, Michigan. Real surfy vibes with a hint of horror punk, like a poppy MUMMIES or a rustic EPOXIES/SOVIETTES with deeper, growling vocals. The synth completely drives this band and it’s the immediate focal point of this whole EP. The guitar and bass have tones that mesh insanely well and are locked in sync throughout. Lovely slab here, and pretty solid autumn jams if I may say so myself.

Silicon Heartbeat Implant EP

This 7″ is an improvement from SILICON HEARTBEAT’s last tape, but it still doesn’t quite tickle my funny bone the way I like it. Although he leans into the sci-fi punk trappings harder than most, it still sounds like a garage punk dude doing the one-man band thing, not like CHROME, which is an obvious inspiration. It’s hard to break those garage chains! CHROME didn’t give a fuck about garage rock (cept maybe “A Question of Temperature”); they were too busy taking acid and dressing up their mannequin friends for the cocaine orgy. Anyway, this record is alright, but it sounds like JAY REATARD just chugged some Robos and LOST SOUNDS is gonna take it easy at the show tonight, maybe skip last call and go home early. Hell, tomorrow’s gonna be a long day and we’re not getting any younger.

Silicon Heartbeat Earth Static cassette

Beaming in from Kalamazoo, Michigan, SILICON HEARTBEAT (not to be confused with SILICON PRAIRIE) trades in gloomy, fuzz-soaked synth-punk. Suck the fun out of the SPITS or slip a sedative to LOST SOUNDS and you’d have something close to this EP. SILICON HEARTBEAT is competent enough, but the relentless monotone that defines each song can be a hard wave to ride, even on what is essentially a 7″ (are there really only eighteen copies of this tape?). I’m guessing that this is a solo project and, thus, it rates on a sliding scale, but still, there’s little heat here. The digital download of Earth Static closes out with a perfectly fine ANGRY SAMOANS cover that is the aural equivalent of a flatline.

Silicon Heartbeat Silicon Heartbeat cassette

Debut cassette keeping the style of Kalamazoo, MI alive. SILICON HEARTBEAT sounds so much like the SPITS at times, it’s kinda crazy. Fuzzed-out, nasty mid-tempo punk with wild synth sounds peppered in. This tape is comprised of a mere four short songs, doing exactly what a good demo should: leaving the listener wanting more. I want more! Thankfully the attached note suggests they have plans to do another tape or record this fall. Consider one already sold!