SCHNEIDERTM Zoomer (Mute) Rating: NNNN Rating: NNNN
Schneider first came to many people’s attention last year with his too-clever electro cover of the Smiths’ There Is A Light That Never Goes Out. With Zoomer, his second album, his unique mixture of pure pop and glitch electronics gels into something irresistibly charming. Sounding like Beck and Autechre locked up in the Abbey Road studios, this is a truly 21st-century pop album. The English-as-a-second-language lyrics tend toward T-Rex-style nonsense, except for the guest rap on Turn On by Max Turner (formerly of Berlin hiphop group Puppetmastaz).