You can't beat a dash of enigma, can you? The press release accompanying COMPUTE'S debut five-track EP features a grainy B&W picture of an attractive blonde girl gazing up at a high wall. Atop the wall sits a strange shape that could be....a hare? a squirrel? a gnome? Buggered if I can work it out, but then Compute hails from Gothenburg and legends of the little people are commonplace in Scandinavian folklore, so maybe that last suggestion's not so far-fetched after all.
Hmm. Very enigmatic, as are the tidbits of information presented to us. Compute apparently is female, lives in a small pink room in a Gothenburg and on occasions even ventures out to clubs "to make people happy." Well, that's all very laudable, isn't it?
None of which prepares you for the EP itself. Really, it could sound like anything, but for all that your reviewer hadn't expected to hear bright, minimally chirpy synth-pop with undertones of early Depeche Mode or the early Some Bizarre roster. Still, with Ladytron having made a fist of poppy electronica in recent times and the likes of Temposhark making intriguing singles, why shouldn't we embrace Compute's music?
Certainly, "Dance With Me" has its' moments. The title track has a likeably naive charm while "Turn Your Head" casts Compute in the role of predator, desiring both a man and the bright lights. The song has a yearning, romantic tinge about it that's curiously attractive, while the ensuing "Alastria" is all too brief: recalling the DIY synth-pop of early Cherry Red releases by the likes of Joe Crow, but frustratingly sputtering out before it's even started.
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"The Letter", meanwhile, finds Compute coming on all bitchy, with her claws protruding. "You're just a stupid little boy I kissed," she sings cattily. Ooh, rip him to shreds, why dontcha? It's all a prelude to the dinky synth melodrama of the closing "And They Can Die For All I Care", though, where Compute appears to be guarding all sorts of obsessive thoughts. Suddenly that pink room in the apartment takes on a much darker hue.
"Dance With Me", then, is an unlikely, but nonetheless attractive proposition from an enigmatic character who seems to enjoy feeding us melody-heavy, candy-coated synth pop, but also keeps a handy supply of arsenic within arm's length. It's an odd, potentially lethal recipe, but that won't prevent you wanting to indulge.
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