STRFKR – Parallel Realms

While the hipsters are all about disco-dance these days, there were days when they still preferred guitars over synthesizers, and went to the rock club over da dance club. Yet even way back then, STRFKR were braving bad PAs to deliver their brand of modern disco-dance. Times & ears have caught up with them, and the group preservers on Parallel Realms.

Leaning into the easier listening side of disco-dance, including four interstitial “interspace” interludes, Realms takes a decidedly sunnier approach to electronics on songs such as the opener “Always – Never”, the bright “Waited For It”, and hopeful closer “Leaving”. Indeed, STRFKR go outright smooth with back-to-back “Together Forever” and “Under Water – In Air”. Only “Holding On” goes slyer, and only the penultimate “Something To Prove” is sadder, darker.

Even the most hardcore hipster is listening to synths nowadays, even if they’d never use the term “EDM” or want to watch just a DJ perform. So, get in on those who’ve been marrying indie-dance electronics for years now, and enter STRFKR’s Parallel Realms.