Reptar is a band from the southern musical hotspot, which is responsible for bands like the eternal REM, the epic Pylon, and the ever-so-lovely B-52s. While I reference these bands, Reptar sounds very little like any of them. Instead, these four guys are working in the frame of the electro pop groups that are around now or those bands that use electronics with other things and get called “left-of-center” like Animal Collective. In terms of actual sound, I would say that it is closer to the latter half. Their sound mixes in some world styles like Afropop with live and sampled instrumentation, which generally does sound pretty good. According to themselves, they love to party. This is all cool, but I really don’t like this EP at all.

I’ve had this album for almost two months. It’s been sitting around. I would attempt to listen to it, and couldn’t make it past the first two tracks as something more interesting would come to mind and I would listen to that instead. This happened on about ten-fifteen different occasions. I know that this album will work for a lot of people. It already has. Folks in the industry like it. They are getting a lot of write-ups, and I wish them the best because all I want is musicians to make money (yes, even Nickelback. If you have saps buying your music, you’re already doing something right. Just roll with it). I can’t kowtow and sleep at night, so that why I’m stopping here.

I know that this is a poor review, but I don’t really have anything positive or constructive to say for this album because my distaste comes from the vibe of this album. I can technically analyze what they are doing and talk about how much I enjoy it, but listening to an album is not a purely technical exercise. Music has to touch you, maybe inappropriately, for you to really get it. That technical part happened here, but certainly not the emotion part. As much as I tried to avoid it, I really, really hate their vibe. It’s really, really boring to me. I know that people like their/this general vibe, so I don’t want to slam it too hard.

You don’t have to listen to just me though. I’m an asshole at a computer. Watch the music video for the title track “Blast Off” and make your own choice: