Dismissing the band as a pair of Berlin-based ‘electro-rockers’ might give the impression that what we have here on ‘Two In One’ is a pair of fairly camp, anodyne and inaccessible geeks with plenty in the way of vintage gear but little in the way of actual songs. And that couldn’t be further from the truth. Whilst the chirpy and rather fidgety bubbles and squeaks of tracks like ‘Be Home Before Dinner’ and ‘I Like Holden Cauldfield’ might present them as a Kraftwerk /Erasure sandwich, the haunting and minimal ambient layers that make up ‘Tip Toe Walk’ and ‘Depart Tropical’ give that same elegant, filmic quality that best typifies artists like DJ Shadow, Goldfrapp, Daniel Nakamura and Zero 7 and the slow, whimpering strings that support more progressive tracks like, ‘Traffic Jam’ only deepens the impact, the tunes buzzing with all manner of curiosity-shop dynamics from plucked piano strings to marimbas, tables and wotnot.
Bodi Bill’s ‘Two In One’ is as buoyant and eccentric as bands like Psapp, as sizzling as Hot Chip, as meticulous as Mozart and as snazzy as Hall & Oates. It’s the thinking man’s electro: more elegiac than electric and more brow than beats. Beautiful. If you like the Junior Boys, you’ll love this.