Looptron: 'Obsolete Before You Start'

In spite of a dubious name, Looptron’s muted electronica is understated and compact. This is the work of London based Neil Sharkey and his laptop, recorded throughout the winter of 2007 and put out at the beginning of this year.

Simple but blessed with a fixating quality that is hard to attribute to anything in particular, the music is not harsh and edgy like the cutting edge of big British artists, but mines a welcome, softer furrow. 'Hello My Name Is Looptron' is a gentle and beguiling opener that twiddles and twists, with a deceptive simplicity. The title track draws on an eighties pop-song sensibility but is also reminiscent of Spiritualized. 'Whore' spirals from mellow ambience into something more twisted, with demented synthesiser sounds strangling themselves gratifyingly underneath Sharkey’s deadpan singing.

'Play My Guitar' strays into what purists will dismiss as ‘noodling’, lasting as it does for five and a half minutes, and seemingly indulging in the repetition of a self-perpetuating musical line and winding up sounding distinctly retrogressive. 'Smile/Obsolete (Slight Return)' takes up where the previous track leaves off and revisits musical moments over a frenetic beat that is still soft enough to leave the tranquillity in place.

myspace.com/looptron

Written by Huw Green.