As far as musical “scenes” go, this here electro-indie-dance-pop one has been by far the worst in recent memory. It started to burn out even before the end of it’s greatest album to date, MGMT’s Oracular Spectacular, for Jeeves’ sake. Then Empire of the Sun came along and entertained the kind of people who were last seen enjoying the latest Fray album. Now this, from MGMT and Chairlift’s fellow Brooklyners Amazing Baby, is a shining example of exactly why having some friends in high places and a kaleidoscopic range of influences isn’t necessarily A Good Thing. Amazing Baby, to their credit, don’t entirely take themselves seriously. Their name even suggests this, at least, it really has to, because if naming a band “Amazing Baby” isn’t a joke, then you’re in MASSIVE SHIT before I’ve even started listening to the record. They are, though, evidently serious about music. There’s a massive range of influences on display over the course of Rewild’s eleven tracks. “World music” is big at the moment, it seems, apparently some sort of requirement of any music wishing to “make it big” is to take some genuinely original and startling music from a traditionally non-Western-influenced artist, bastardise it and turn it into essentially the equivalent of speaking English in a foreign accent and claiming you know the language. So listen: using just the black keys on a keyboard doesn’t make you sound cultured, just stupid.It goes on. Basically, it’s what Amazing Baby does to everything it takes in. Gobbling in popular music from every decade and continent, and regurgitating it upon the world in a glossy over-produced indie-dance package. There’s undeniably early-80s Bowie in there, but it’s a poorly-formed impersonation of Bowie rather than anything I’d like to acknowledge as an homage. Bits sound like a badly-timed Michael Jackson tribute act. The album’s stranger - and better - moments come from the segments, such as ‘Invisible Place’, that sound a little like Pink Floyd. When artists like Mr Scruff or RjD2 make their music, I imagine them pouring over ancient vinyls for days on end, searching fruitlessly for the perfect sample. This is the indie equivalent, only without the flair or panache, without any real engagement with either the music on one end or the listener on the other, and it’s all just stale emotionless soul-sapping BLAND. The problem with wearing your influences so plainly is that you’ll never escape the inevitable comparisons, and never escape the fact that as soon as I put your music on I immediately just want to listen to T-Rex instead anyway.People who bought this also bought: MGMT Play the ‘70s! 40%Amazing Baby on Myspace