Named after the collectable Japanese toy, Tiny Magnetic Pets from Dublin, are unusual on the current Irish music scene. Rather than be influenced by singer/songwriters or indie rock, the inspiration behind their music comes from Bowie’s Berlin period, 70’s krautrock and early disco, with a good measure of 80’s synthpop thrown into the mix. With the quintessentially pop vocal delivery of Paula Gilmer, it could be said that Tiny Magnetic Pets operate in uncharted musical water, somewhere between Kylie and Kluster.
Their debut on Happy Robots Records follows 2009’s debut album ‘Return of The Tiny Magnetic Pets’ and two critically acclaimed EPs in ‘Stalingrad’ and ‘The NATO Alphabet’.
The band have accrued strong support for their blend of electronic European pop. Ex-Visage member and founder of the Blitz club, Rusty Egan, has been an enthusiastic champion with a remix of their track ‘Control Me’. Another fan is Andy McCluskey from OMD who in 2016 recommended the band “for all lovers of distinctive electronic music”. After opening for NEU! legend Michael Rother at the Electri-City festival in Düsseldorf, they played a blistering show which led to them opening for ex-Kraftwerk member, Wolfgang Flür. That show was a defining moment for Tiny Magnetic Pets, leading to two collaborations with the technopop legend on this new album.
“Deluxe/Debris” is a brilliant encapsulation of what they do best. Drifting effortlessly between blasts of perfect pop with songs like ‘Guiding Light’ to ten minute epics such as live favourite, ‘Semaphore’ with its krautrock beat and experimental electronic excursions. ‘Cold War Neon’ is a moody suspenseful instrumental that in a perfect world would soundtrack series two of cold war thriller Deutschland 83. Never afraid to experiment, there are two versions of ‘Here comes the noise’, part one is atmospheric and reflective in a David Bowie Berlin-period way, whereas part two is like an infectious Pet Shop Boys hit sung by an exuberant Sarah Cracknell. On top of this are the two collaborations with Wolfgang Flür ‘Radio On’ and ‘Never Alone’ both of which give a Germanic seal of approval to the Irish trio’s daring electronic excursions.
With each track seguing into one another, like side two of Abbey Road or Oxygene, and without ruthlessly pushing all the hits to the start of the record for the sake of Spotify streams, “Deluxe/Debris” harks back to a period when albums were listened to from start to finish. Yet it’s breezy, optimistic take on the electronic pop sound, is both reassuringly familiar and effortlessly fresh. “Deluxe/Debris” is the perfect soundtrack for complicated times.
‘Deluxe/Debris’ is the tenth release on Happy Robots Records and is available to order from www.happyrobots.co.uk
12″ vinyl LP / Digital
Vinyl limited to 300 copies
Available online via Happy Robots or available in stores, distributed exclusively by Cargo Records
Released 18 August 2017
