Breathe Carolina

Denver-based synth-buddies David Schmitt and Kyle Even are very young, very tattooed, and very loud. Their brand of buzzing, densely layered electronica is sometimes classified as screamo — which in this case means it sounds like someone took a death-metal band, replaced their guitars with Korg X50 synthesizers, and let...

By Craig Outhier

February 4, 2010

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Denver-based synth-buddies David Schmitt and Kyle Even are very young, very tattooed, and very loud. Their brand of buzzing, densely layered electronica is sometimes classified as screamo — which in this case means it sounds like someone took a death-metal band, replaced their guitars with Korg X50 synthesizers, and let Hilary Duff over-dub half the vocals. If nothing else, it's a novel mash-up that affords the duo some serious textural freedom. On oh-so-emo single "I'm the Type of Person to Take It Personal," off their Hello Fascination album (2009), the lads throw Cookie Monster vocals and infectious dance grooves into a paint mixer, then finish it with moody — one is almost tempted to say "mature" — introspection. That's a quality that's fairly consistent throughout their music: You're consistently surprised by something. You think you have them pegged as the spazzier inbred cousins of Fall Out Boy and then they show you recessive genetic glimpses of — what? — MGMT? We'll find out as they get older.

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