Sylvester Boy - Monsters Rule This World (CD)

All Music Guide

Sylvester Boy's first and, to date, only album on Chicks on Speed records, Monsters Rule This World, offers further proof that Chicks on Speed and their friends' mix of synthpop and punk was well ahead of (and transcended) the electroclash curve. Sylvester Boy (a.k.a. Thomas Sehl)'s sound is less confrontational and rockdamaged than Chicks on Speed's, but Monsters Rule This World is nearly as subversive and definitely as distinctivesounding. The cold, clipped rhythms that propel the album owe a lot to the similarly frostbitten beats of Suicide and the Normal; however, Sylvester Boy himself has a campy delivery and sense of humor that's more in keeping with the wilder side of '80s synthpop and new wave, such as Sigue Sigue Sputnik; some of the stranger sonic maniupulations on Monsters Rule This World faintly recall the Art of Noise or Thomas Dolby. In some ways, it's too bad that this 2000 album arrived just a few years too early for the rise and fall of electroclash, because its best... moments are as good, if not superior to, many of the singles that dominated that trend. "Our Power is Lauder," the title track and "Sylvester Boy" on which Sehl declares himself a "worldwide toy" capture the louder, more danceoriented side of Monsters Rule This World, while "Helping Hand" and "Vote Future" are quieter and lean more towards synthpop. "Money Eyes," "Independence is No Solution" and "Vote Future" have a similarly tongueincheek political perspective as Chicks On Speed's music does (and tracks like the 30second caricature of the US, "Power Macho," seem downright prescient). Although "Bastardokratia" and "Don't Bring My Body" tend to drag in comparison to the rest of the album, tracks like the wonderful, slightly sinister electrofoppery of "I Can Mash You" more than make up for the album's lulls. Monsters Rule This World does indeed reveal Sylvester Boy's relentlessly playful sound as a toy of worldwide proportions; even though he's gone mysteriously quiet since its release, this album is still fun enough to please fans of quirky punkmeetselectronic music. - Heather Phares, All Music Guide Read more Less