SMRTS

smRts Have Friends And Visit Them At Night
Heartless Robot

If the old adage “everyone in rock just rips each other off” is to be believed then the true test of artistry is moving past simply “ripping off” those influences and recombining what you’ve learned into such an idiosyncratic package that it becomes distinctively yours. With smRts Have Friends And Visit Them At Night, supremely talented local outfit smRts come very close to doing just this.

Moving past the most obvious of their garage-rock influences, Predrag Delibasic leads his band into bold new territory, mixing those very influences into a nearly unrecognisable pastiche of hypnotically pop-centric songwriting.

A record in the truest sense of the word (it’s only available on vinyl), this endlessly creative and surprisingly fluid set of tunes dispels any notion of opportunism by sticking to what the group does best: crafting clever, ramshackle, occasionally soaring songs, without bowing to esoteric noodling for the sake of experimentation.

Where smRts really create a distinction between themselves and their contemporaries is through the unpredictably imaginative arrangements, bolstered by Delibasic’s truly enigmatic melodic sense. For example, on the the twisting surf-rock-esque King Wave Rising, the balance of apparent naïve melodic sentimentality is undercut by the presence of decidedly ominous tunefulness.

These songs are blanketed in a magnetic charisma, and contain a vigor and effortlessness that is insanely, immediately likable, and ingenious in how much it achieves.


_JENNIFER PETERSON-WARD