bis - Data Panik Etcetera

Data Panik Etcetera boasts all the hallmarks of the Teen-C sound – spiky guitars, kandy-popping keyboards and the delirious yelping of Manda Rin, John Disco and Sci-Fi Steven. But on this new collection – the cleaned-up results of a few aborted sessions the band attempted in the middle of the last decade – bis sound like they’ve cooled down somewhat. It may not quite be at the freezing point of the glacial synthscapes of 2001’s Return to Central, but they’re definitely bubbling at a less hyperactive simmer than before.

“Think how we used to be unmistakeable,” they bark on opener “Control the Radical”, but DPE’s opening trio of tunes sound exactly like you’d expect bis to sound now they’ve all settled down with kids. “Radical” could have come straight from Social Dancing, a masterclass in modern day new wave – while conveniently proving my theory that bis were the band Alphabeat secretly wanted to be.

The eighties sequencer arpeggios and naggingly clumsy riffage of “Minimum Wage” may be even better, defying the sobering realities of getting older with an irresistible disco beat, before hitting the listener with the ultimate brag of youthphoria – “At least we won’t die alone.” Ouch. The fantastic opening salvo is rounded out with ‘Rulers and the States’, which brings the Teen-C sound up to date by driving a dumb four-note hook into your brain. It’s kiddie-pop for adults, in the least shameful way possible.

If the opening tracks bring the Data and the Panik, the remainder of the album sadly makes up the Etcetera criteria. When the band clairvoyantly moaned on 1996’s “Skinny Tie Sensurround” about hipsters who “thought we forgot the eighties too quickly,” they probably didn’t anticipate that nearly twenty years on, they’d be guilty of that crime themselves. Where the album’s first songs were both a timely update of the bis sound, and a friendly reminder of what made them great, most of the rest of the album simply sounds like it’s treading water in a sea of four-to-the-floor rhythms and Microkorg presets.

There are points where you can tell bis are reaching for LCD Soundsystem levels of synthesis - particularly the slow-building mechanik pop of “Retail of the Details” or the carnivalesque drum taboos of “Music Lovers” – and when it works, it’s admirable, but done with none of James Murphy’s sly savvy. In fact, it borders on workmanlike – something you could never accuse the band of in the past. It’s all well and good copping a melody wholesale from Spandau Ballet for the main hook of one of your songs (“(That Love Ain’t) Justified” simply is “I Don’t Need This Pressure On”), but at least sound like you’re being cheeky about it.

My biggest fear on hearing that there would be a new bis album in 2014 was that it would be forty minutes of age-inappropriate cuteness à la “Starbright Boy” or “Sweet Shop Avengerz”. I’m more than happy that this isn’t the case, and it’s good that Data Panik Etcetera knows exactly what it wants to do instead. Unfortunately, it does this with none of the edge, none of the drive, none of the sheer urgency that made them as great as they were in their prime. I hope the fatigue doesn’t stick, but for now, just be warned – Bis are coming dangerously close to becoming boring.