Stockholm Monsters

Not as deep a dig as many of my posts, but Stockholm Monsters found its way to the top of my mind after I wrote about Dislocation Dance yesterday. Like them, this outfit hailed from Manchester.



Their sound was wedged in somewhere between the fizzy indie-pop of the time—think the Smiths and all their disciples—and the corner-squared club music of New Order. Tellingly, most of their catalog was produced by Peter Hook, and they were signed to Factory. It shows; their songs sparkle, are propelled by chunky drum-machine rhythms, and wiggle with an art-funk restlessness.

The A-side of their debut single was recorded by Martin Hannett, and I suppose it's for that reason it's one of their more menacing tunes.



But they never went much of anywhere, despite Hooky standing by them for most of the remainder of their existence. Maybe their in-betweenness—one foot in guitar music, the other in bound-for-the-disco-ball four-on-the-floor boogie—worked to their detriment. They only ever put out one LP, 1984's Alma Mater, and slowly faded away.