Who Made Who

Danish trio Who Made Who have drawn countless comparisons to UK sensation Hot Chip, predictably because they're both synth-based electro pop groups from across the Atlantic. Unfortunately that's where the similarities end. Unlike Hot Chip, Who Made Who's second album, The Plot, lacks originality, each track never straying from its set musical path — no break offs, tangents or experimentation to pull you away from the structure before returning to it, just loads of monotone vocals and happy synths. Despite touring alongside groundbreakers like Daft Punk, Soulwax, LCD Soundsystem, and Justice, it's as if the counterparts of Scissor Sisters, Of Montreal and Cut Copy decided to make an album that would top the charts of mundane predictability. There are a few notables that make The Plot a little more than quotidian, however. The title track pulls whiney guitars and escalating vocals over continuous, almost looped bass and minimal synths, making for a track that definitely gives false hope for the album. Instrumental tune "Raveo," meanwhile, uses sliding strings and twisted, gutted synths for an almost haunted sound. The Plot tries to meld sounds and styles from nearly every decade since the '60s: psychedelic throwbacks, disco and garage rock, etc. There's tons of variety, it's just not put to particularly good use.