The Dutch trio delight as they experiment with an electronic expansion of their indie-rock remit.

A familiar face on the indie scene, Pip Blom’ return on new album ‘Bobbie’ arrives with metamorphic force. The Dutch outfit have deviated from their punky roots and delivered a record tied by synth with an electro-pop bow. The album is erratically energetic and candidly jovial; an arcade of tracks. Listeners! pick your musical machine and win yourself a teddy bear.

‘Bobbie’ doesn’t sound like a guitar band trying out their new synth toy, rather a wilful construction of digital designed, purpose-built music. It is fizzing and poppy to the core. Pip Blom have entered a new spectrum of description with this album, sparking parallels with artists like Two Door Cinema Club, Icona Pop and Paramore’s ‘After Laughter’. Whilst Dave McCracken’s production of this album does present a polished work, perhaps smoothing out some of Pip Blom’s loveable quirks, their remains an edge to some of the tracks. Like an ice cream dropped in punk grit, the overall sugary feel is often distorted by unvarnished lyrics and heavier bass lines.

The inimitably clear vocal character of Blom, the band’s lead singer, grounds the lyrical ether in ‘Bobbie’ in the listeners attention. Phrases like, ‘You wanted someone else/well I can be just like her’ in ‘I Can Be Your Man’ or, ‘I start to feel like we’re underwater’ in the lead single ‘Tiger’, add a needed complexity to this sonically strong album. ‘I Can Be Your Man’ is a standout of the record, with its retro, 80’s 8-bit quality, sewn within an indie-rock bed and flowering a simple animated soundscape which simultaneously provokes a powerful nostalgia. The album cover, with geometric characters dancing in colour perhaps suggest that this feel is the intent of ‘Bobbie,’ a party soundtrack for a digital world.

Now on their third album, released by Heavenly Records, the band show off some collaborative influences they have gathered in their career so far. Alex Kapranos, a touring friend from Franz Ferdinand notoriety, and Personal Trainer’s Willem Smit both appear on the record. ‘Is This Love’ boasts campy funk riffs no doubt aided by Kapranos efforts. The track is a call to other bands, having once been trapped in the post-punk cage, to experiment and deviate from their earlier works, which this album certainly does.