BY RINGMASTER REVIEW on JANUARY 30, 2025 •
The Experiment is described on its Bandcamp page as being “designed for modern humans with limited attention spans.” The reality, as we found it, is that it is a proposal for the imagination, adventurous hearts and a leaning towards addictiveness and no fleeting moment with fixation.
The release is the new mini album from REPLACED BY ROBOTS, a record that in many ways lives up to its title though with every breath you equally sense the creative purpose within its eclectic realms. Hailing from Somersworth, New Hampshire, the band consists of vocalist/bassist Goolkasian (The Elevator Drops/Lovesick), vocalist/guitarist Adam Wade, and vocalist/syntheist Heather Joy Morgan (Lovesick). Their music is tagged as embracing the likes of dream pop, shoegaze, and alternative pop but as their new offering proves it is as unpredictable in its flavour varied sound as it is in its enterprise.
The album opens up with one quickly addictive track, The Laboratory. Washing upon the shores of curiosity, the song quickly reveals and revels in its gothic/electro rock inclinations and surf rock carousing. Quite simply it is a celebration of sound, an imagination entangling beach party of audacious rock ‘n’ roll with eighties new wave revelry around rhythmic manipulation and quite superb.
The following All The Lonely Nights sees the band team up with producer Paul Kolderie (Pixies, Dinosaur Jr, Radiohead) and instantly wraps ears in a harmonic triplet of vocals before strolling through them with glam rock/new wave enthusiasm. From its first breath, it is a highly infectious affair with a landscape of twists and turns that only added to the fascination before Are We Falling In Love Or Am I Just Losing My Mind? shared its equally captivating presence. Josh Hager (Devo, The Elevator Drops) brings his producing prowess to the track and draws out the rocker within the band with again an eighties tinge and fresh pop punk devilry to the results. Like all songs though, it has an eclectic canvas of sound that constantly keeps the imagination alive and expectations at bay.
The otherworldly suggestiveness and arcane electronic experimentation of brief instrumental The Air Of Uncertainty equally let the imagination conjure before it leapt upon album closing and senses rousing Since You Broke My Ouija Board. This too has an ethereal air over supernatural possibilities, an exploration of shadows conjured with nagging grooves, a body inciting rhythmic shuffle, and a radiance of vocals with Morgan a beacon in its atypical dream pop midst.
The Experiment is top and tailed with pure majestic temptation and in between simply had the senses and pleasure keenly aroused; a must for any alt pop appetite we suggest.
The Experiment is out now digitally and on Ltd Ed CD @ https://replacedbyrobots3d.bandcamp.com/album/the-experiment-2
