Warren Suicide – The Hello

Say hello to Warren Suicide, the Berlin-based band who make some of the most essential punkified electro you’re likely to hear for some time. Based around the character of Warren Suicide (a kind of darker, more poorly drawn, care in the community member of Gorillaz) the band have pieced together an album of some purely classy songs, some of which date back to 2004.

The quality of The Hello makes you wonder how the band haven’t made greater steps forwards in that time, but on the strength of these songs, it surely can’t be long before they start to garner plenty of interest.

Somewhat understandably, Warren Suicide commence proceedings and lay bare where the band’s hearts lie: “Hello, hello, hello, my name is Warren Suicide,” boil the vocals, and inexplicably Warren Suicide seems to be the kind of person it would actually be kind of fun to hang out with.

His room is almost certainly painted black, his friends are probably all Goths, and he most likely spends most of his time listening to Sheep On Drugs and Marilyn Manson. Still, Warren’s influenced an album that is full of infectious goth pop like Addiction or Fulford (featuring a cheerleader style chant of “2,4,6,8 who do we appreciate: Fulford,” backed with some rampant fuzzed out guitar) so he obviously has something about him.

Warren Suicide’s ear for an eerie pop tune continues on We’re Adjusting Ourselves, which borrows heavily on Marilyn Manson’s vocal style and S Club 7‘s bouncy pop. You could probably get away with playing it at a kiddies birthday party, though whether or not you should is probably another matter – is encouraging Goth tendencies at a young age is a good idea?

Well, Cherie (the beautifully voiced vocalist and keyboard player) states that she first met Warren when she was twelve on the frantic blast of drum and drone of Twelve, so an occasional brush the electro-gothic at an early age is perhaps not such a bad thing after all: it helped her and her band to deconstruct The Beatles Yer Blues in a particularly inspired and brutal fashion. It bristles with an oddly lo-fi vocal, a rolling drum pattern, and a bubbling synth. It’s a gleeful rendition, and they certainly don’t destroy the song, instead making it very much their own; not an easy trick with a Beatles tune.

There’s no filler on this album; each song proves that Warren Suicide write infectious, intelligent, and most importantly (whisper it) fun, electro. Now is the time to introduce yourselves to Warren Suicide.