styrofoam

Belgium-based indie-electro pop artist Styrofoam (aka Arne Van Petegem) released new full-length album Disco Synthesizers & Daily Tranquilizers on October 18. The first single, “Get Smarter,” came along with five remixes of the track and b-side “Kids On Acid,” featuring Paul Cook of the Sex Pistols on drums. Download “Kids On Acid” HERE.

Disco Synthesizers & Daily Tranquilizers (named after a line in Elvis Costello’s classic "This Year's Girl") introduces a different Styrofoam, one with a harder edge and darker sound. Co-produced and mixed by Wally Gagel (Eels, Folk Implosion, Muse) of WAX LTD, he and Arne set out to produce a timeless electronic album inspired by classics like New Order, Kraftwerk and Depeche Mode, and their shared love for early Electro Hiphop and Postpunk. The album’s beats and keys were recorded directly to analogue tape, shunning the usual ProTools trickery of all previous Styrofoam releases. In addition to the Sex Pistol’s Paul Cook on drums for “Kids On Acid,” the album also features guest drums from Devo’s Alan Myers on “Believe Everything” and Jimmy Eat World vocalist Jim Adkins on “Extra Careful.”

The follow-up to Styrofoam’s 2008 release A Thousand Words, Disco Synthesizers & Daily Tranquilizers was the first album to be recorded and mixed at the newly refurbished and reopened TTG/WAX studios in Hollywood, a legendary recording spot back in the 60s that hosted classic album recordings by The Velvet Underground, Neil Young, The Doors, Tim Buckley, Frank Zappa and Jimi Hendrix amongst others.

Styrofoam has also proven to be an integral part of the revitalized Belgian music scene as producer/remixer to a wide variety of artists, most recently he has done notable remixes for Kele’s (Bloc Party) hit single “Tenderoni” (Listen) and Of Montreal’s “An Eluardian Instance” (Listen). In the past, he has worked with The Notwist, Death Cab For Cutie, The Postal Service and Lali Puna.