Batteries

Batteries is the self-titled debut solo album by Steven Clark (professionally known as Sci-Fi Steven) from Glasgow's Punk/Disco legends bis.

An exercise in short, sharp new-wave snappiness, Steven has ramped up the guitars and latent aggression to create a new sound which has already been compared to Devo playing Queens of the Stone Age or vice-versa.

Nagging melodies abound with some darker twists and a cynical sense of positivity informs the lyrics. There are plenty of pop hooks for the bis faithful, but Batteries is an angrier beast. Contains anthemic lead track "Batteries" and the viciously wonky pop of "Human Requirements”.

Batteries are disposed of or recharged and here, Steven is trying to work out which kind he is. Taking a left-turn from his work as part of bis (whilst retaining enough familiarity to take original fans along for the ride) Batteries is a much darker place. The electric guitar features more prominently (and in a defiantly more aggressive way) than some may expect but it not about classic riffs, there's a tendency toward the oblique in deference to the ever-present post-punk influences, with undeniable nods to Adam and the Ants, Future of the Left, forgotten Irish legends Compulsion and early Eno.

For his first solo foray, Steven played and recorded everything on the album himself, choosing a deliberately limited range of instruments – from a Fender telecaster, budget Westfield bass guitar, Roland SH-09 monophonic synthesiser and a Roland RS-09.
Lyrically, Batteries deal in the frenzied paranoia of modern living, existential crises and the finite nature of the human being, without ever taking itself remotely seriously. Any bitterness is usually swept away by a sucrose harmony and there's an underlying sense of achieving positivity from a negative beginning. The album is about questionable futures and, not in a romantic science fiction way, a loss of control where submission is the easiest option.

Batteries’s tracks

• Pigs by Batteries