Tom Dinsdale and Simon Franks, the artists behind Audio Bullys, create an electronica sound bordering on dance and trip-hop that is at times interesting. However, their sound is mostly average and unoriginal.
Audio Bullys' album "Generation" follows in the wake of higher quality albums from a couple years ago, such as The Streets' "Original Pirated Material."
The album is filled with tracks that sound like poor imitations of better groups. "Bright Lights," is decent, but only because it sounds like Daft Punk. The first half of the album is filled with abrasive songs that loop with low-quality synthetic tones, similar to Daft Punk's "Human After All."
"Shot You Down" is a poor remix of "Bang, Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)," by Nancy Sinatra. "Keep on Moving," and "All Sing Along" sound nearly identical to The Streets.
The second half of the album includes "I'm in Love," "Struck By The Sound" and "This Road," all of which carry a more relaxed, trip-hop sound and are the highlights of the album.
"This Road" has the most interesting lyrics, moving from being the reflectively cynical ("I don't know another way to go than where I'm going"), to the detached ("If this road leads nowhere, I don't care, I'm going"), and occasionally towards the bittersweet. For the rest of the tracks, the lyrics remain very simple and unnoticeable.
The Audio Bullys' music isn't so bad overall, and the album has some redeeming songs. The larger issue for Audio Bullys is timing. If "Generation" were around a few years ago, it would have a lot more going for it. As it stands now, the album is a recycled version of British and French movements in electronica and trip-hop.
If you're looking for electronica, dance or trip-hop, stick with Audio Bullys' predecessors like the Future Sound of London, DJ Shadow, Portishead and The Specials.
Photo: Courtesy of Matthew Messina, from the RMBERS' Instagram page
