On the back of just one single and umpteen already-legendary live performances, Stockholm’s Holograms have become punk’s latest hot property, and unlike so many similarly hyped outfits these lot sound like they actually mean it. There’s nothing complicated going on with their debut album on Captured Tracks: just four whey-faced young lads delivering straight-up, f*ck-you songs in tight, fuss-free arrangements, played on knackered gear. Their sound is rooted in the post-punk of ’78-80, those magical years between the death of punk 1.0 and the arrival of new wave, when groups felt liberated enough to embrace synthesisers and clever lyrical conceits but still wanted to communicate forcefully, and directly
Tunes like “Memories of Sweat” and “Monolith” have the smart, geometrically precise and ever so slightly unhinged vibe of Wire and early Magazine, while”‘ABC City” convincingly invokes a yobbier, gobbler punk sound and attitude, with considerable success. Of course, it’s debatable whether this album gives you anything that your record collection doesn’t already have in spades – but even so, it’s invigorating to hear a bunch of pissed-off kids playing punk like their lives depended on it. This sound, and this kind of barely suppressed hormonal rage, will never get old.
