Wellington NZ’s So So Modern are “Futuristic schizoid noise merchants from New Zealand and are guaranteed to give you a synthgasm”.

“So So Modern aren’t so much modern, or even postmodern, subtly incorporating elements from rock’s rich tapestry, they are more past-modern. They sound like two groups – a retro garage band and a forward-looking techno one – fighting for control in one band’s body. They call what they do “futuristic schizoid noise pop” and it is a bit like that: just when you think it’s going to be pristine machine beats all the way, these NZ B (for “barmy”) boys go and splatter filthy guitars everywhere.

Their sound is a crash collision of New York No Wave and nu rave, krautrock and math rock, E’d-up acid house at its most exuberant and electronica at its most elegant. One of their tracks, The New Internationale, sounds like Battles in a battle with the Beastie Boys of Intergalactic, or Kraftwerk if they decided to make a grunge record, while another, Loose Threads and Theremins, has the demented propulsion and Ritalin-enriched yelps of Klaxons. But mostly they sound like Klaxons and Kraftwerk together, at once, joined at the hip, doing the Watusi at Gatecrasher.” – The Guardian