This strange mix of glitchy, digital outbursts, synth squelches, keyboard inclusions, and more traditional indie-pop urges make a surprisingly satisfying result. Take the peculiar sonic salvos and musical bursts out of it, and you have a song that would have sat easily amongst the jittery, nervy creations of the New Wave scene of the early eighties. Take the pop-ness out of it, and you end up with something far more “out there.” But the two working together makes for an odd, beguiling, of-the-moment slice of the alt-pop invention.
The other addictive quality that Nicotine Chewing Gum possesses is a relentless and addictive motorik drive, a rumbling back beat that fires up the energy levels, dragging the listener along with it for the ride…whether they want to go or not.
It is pop, that’s for sure. But it is pop built out of all manner of sounds and styles which really have no business hanging out together, But it works. By god, it works.
[…] first taste of Vertacyn Arc Materializer was the odd and eccentric alt-pop meets electronica of Nicotine Chewing Gum. And you would have thought it would have braced me for the additional ten tracks that go with it […]