Pitchfork

Despite a great deal of progress over the last few years, the sad truth is that the laptop remains a second-class citizen in rock band formats. Sure, more bands have come around to the idea of having a laptopist on full display in their live performances, but in many instances these folks are the 00s equivalent of 90s alt-rock's cellists-- less a stylistic embellishment than a way to bring your best pal on tour. Even when the sonic potential of the laptop features prominently on a group's records, its contribution to the live mix is usually marginal; I remember trying to determine at a Wilco show in 2002 whether Mike Jorgensen was a band member or the monitor guy sitting unusually close.

Perhaps the inability of the laptop to truly infiltrate the rock-instrument status quo has to do with very simple, aesthetic reasons; theorize all you want, it's just really hard to rock out while pointing and clicking. No surprise, then, that a major exception to that rule, the thoroughly spastic Jason Forrest, is attempting to rectify this regrettable situation through his label, Cock Rock Disco. One of those acts, the Dutchman recording under the adverbial alias of About, proves himself valuable to the campaign with his debut CD Bongo, using the mulching capabilities of the computer to create an intriguingly nervous brand of pop-punk.

About's sound is not unlike what you'd expect to get if Forrest's mish-mash "My 36 Favorite Punk Songs" started influencing actual bands, filled as it is with impossible drumbeats and roller-coaster-jerk tempo shifts. However, Rutger Hoedemaekers' compositions aren't nearly as abrasive as those of most laptop jockeys, largely conforming to new wave conventions in spite of the electronically volatile rhythm section. With his nasally voice, Hoedemaekers often sounds like he's pirating the dweeby sound of The dB's (never more so than on "Strike You as the Enemy") rather than the sonic terrorism of Kid606, while including enough technological spice to avoid being your cool uncle's weekend nostalgia trip.

While a handful of songs stick to the "rock band plus scratched-disc drum samples" format, About's toolbox goes deeper than routine loop juggling. The subdued piano chords of "Nogato" are gradually accompanied by a horn section, gleefully capped off by an unexpected tuba on the final verse-- few things in music being as welcome as unexpected tuba. "Think Niles Drink" and "Stack of Marshalls" find Hoedemaekers interrupting himself with volleys of vocal samples, while "Band Dynamics" employs a female singer and raved-up synthesizers in a giddy facsimile of Max Tundra's joyous 8-bit pop.

Unfortunately, the middle section of Bongo gets bogged down in half-sketched experiments and instrumental doodles, stumbling over the barrier between rhythmically inventive and skittishly obnoxious on "Boo (Hoo)" and "Furry Dice". But the percentage of songs that fall victim to over-mechanization is much lower that most artists who attempt this sort of hybrid; for the most part, Hoedemaekers effectively uses his cut-up drums to take the energy of pop-punk to new levels of sugar-highness rather than letting the machines overwhelm the songs. If only more groups could so skillfully unleash the hidden rock-out potential of the laptop, perhaps it can someday successfully break the oppressive instrument barrier, becoming more than an onstage fashion accessory.