Take a little Euro sensibility such as The Bad Touch, a little French funk a la Daft Punk, unashamed American pop hooks and some hot guitar work and you've got 3 Speaker High. Opening up with their first single "Make Me Dance All Night" the CD immediately is bouncy fun pop/dance music. All the vocals are heavily vocoded and all the tracks have full guitar work. Nothing dark or introspective here, it's all happy and uplifting. "The DJ Loves Us" features a big synth rhythm- the synths all sound Euro and melodically compliment the vocals. This is all so vocal, so poppy.... I keep thinking of the 80's when electronic music was pop music. No tweaking and noodling around with the knobs here, the songs are firmly structured, have good hooks, infectious choruses and uptempo electronic beats. "Come to Me" has a soaring feeling that reminds me of A-ha.
"Let It Go" keeps the electronic beats and adds a 70's vibe with the string arrangements, keeping it happy. The 4 to the floors beats give way to a touch of breakbeat with "That Voice," a song about being confused about a girl- "So now what shall I do? Shall I meet up with my friends, or call up on you? Will you rescue me from this loneliness? Or shall I just go back to my best friend?" The lyrics are accompanied by bittersweet melancholy music, and works well. Another pretty track is "Don't Take It Too Far"- the vocoded vocals become human and tender- the guitar work is reminiscent of Echo and the Bunnymen- props to the great guitar playing throughout the CD. The last song, "All we Want," is one of the hardest, yet keeping the delicate guitar and tender vocals.
"Some people seem to have it all together, some people seem to know just what to do.... all we wanna do is dance." Sounds good to me. I imagine 3 Speaker High would translate well to a live setting, and if you're lucky enough to be near one of their performances, be there. Oh, and the very last track is a 3 Speaker High remix of "Have a Good Time," pumping up the wall of guitars. That and "Make Me Dance All Night" have already been released as singles, and there's definitely tons more dancefloor-friendly tracks on the CD. This is straight up poptastic dance music and consistently stays upbeat and happy. Check their website at http://3speakerhigh.com.
