New Breed of Synthpop

Allow me to introduce you to the new face of pop electronica music. Myspace decided to feature the new UK band Temposhark on their frontpage this week.

This band seems to encompass the mood of electronica music and the attitude many musicians have been taking in the recent years. This is in no way necessarily a good thing.

First of all, the band is self-proclaimed as 'dark.' (Whatever the hell that means!) If it's one thing I've learned about music over the years is that 'dark' is not something you proclaim yourself. 'Dark' is something that just is. You never talk about it to other people. It's mysterious and never completely definable. It's almost as if they wanted to be goth, but were just too pretty.

Speaking of which, just look at them. The whole crew looks like a cross between N'Sync and any number of pop rock bands to make it big in the past 3 years. Examination of their forum and myspace comments reveals their following of female teenie bops. Most of the comments on their site fail to even mention anything musically and generally talk about how hot the guys are.

The band says they've been compared to Depeche Mode, but believe me, they are no Depeche Mode. As a Depeche Mode fan, I'm insulted this knock off boy band with synthesizers would say such a thing or that anyone with good musical taste would dare to make the comparison.

Some of the songs are far too simple and leave you wondering when the intro will finish. The best song available on their website is "Blame," but that's not much, which is not 'dark' by any means, particularly the chorus.

As for the lyrics, I don't think they really matter either way. Electronica music has never relied heavily on the lyrical content of their songs. It's always about looped beats and remixes. I do somewhat find the lyrics a little pushy at times. Almost as if they laid the music track and then said, "Oh crap, we need words now."

All-in-all, I would say if you're over the age of 14 to avoid this band. I don't plan on hearing their stuff played widely anywhere yet.

The only saving grace for this band is that they continue to improve with each new single. Eventually they may have the experience and the talent to produce mature intelligible music, but they seem at least 3-4 years away from it.