Monsters Rule This World

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 synth pop and punk was well ahead of (and transcended) the electroclash curve. Sylvester Boy (aka Thomas Sehl)'s sound is less confrontational and rock-damaged than Chicks on Speed's, but Monsters Rule This World is nearly as subversive and definitely as distinctive-sounding. 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 synth pop and new wave, such as Sigue Sigue Sputnik; some of the stranger sonic manipulations 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 dance-oriented side of Monsters Rule This World, while "Helping Hand" and "Vote Future" are quieter and lean more toward synth pop. "Money Eyes," "Independence Is No Solution," and "Vote Future" have a similarly tongue-in-cheek political perspective as Chicks on Speed's music does (and tracks like the 30-second caricature of the U.S., "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 electro foppery 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 punk-meets-electronic music. ~ Heather Phares