stylex

STYLEX R.I.P. 1999-2007

STYLEX broke up fall of 2007. We thank all of our fans and friends for their support. For more info about all of our awesome side projects at pretendrecords.com



XLR8R Magazine says: Expect nothing short of electronic mayhem when you're dealing with Ohio's own Stylex, whose letest release, Tight Scrapes further solidifies the state's reputation for producing some of the most interesting post-punk and synth-based experimentation around. The band has shared the stage with the likes of The Liars, Enon, and Hot Hot Heat, and judging from the photos available on their website, their live show is not one to miss.

the cincinnati citybeat says:

Like Brainiac, Stylex were ahead of the dancey, Electro/Post Punk and New Wave revival curve. Stylex have been making adrenalized Neo-New Wave since 1999, releasing several albums of guitar/drum-machine/synth merriment and opening for (somewhat) like-minded artists like Enon, Radio 4, Detachment Kit and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs.



It's amusing to read the press on Stylex's new album, Tight Scrapes; any non-Ohio-based critic seems to express disbelief that something so unique could emanate from our apparently creativity-less state, name checking the bands that came before Stylex, like Devo, Pere Ubu and, yes, Brainiac. But it should never be surprising when a locale isolated from the major music hubs produces music that is original, imaginative and untainted by trends (Omaha anyone?).



Tight Scrapes is Stylex's finest effort to date, a high-wire mish-mash of 8-bit video game-like bleeps, animated, thick bass lines, hyperkinetic drumming and angled guitar thrusts. Along with the liveliness of the music, the wild-eyed vocals bring the human element, which seems to chase the ghosts in the machine around like a high-action game of Pac-Man. The recording isn't "modern" sounding, which makes it that much more effective. Instead of using all the tech tools available today, the band sounds like it is using gear that could have been available in the late '70s/early '80s. It gives the album that much more humanity, as they employ the "chintziness" with great effectiveness throughout -- unlike with much Electronica today, you never get the sense that the machinery is running the show. ~Mike Breen



Foxy Digitalis gives us 9 out of 10 and says: “High-energy, brutal Techno” is not a phrase you utter lightly, especially since it seems on the surface to invite only ridicule. And yet I’m really not going out on a limb in saying that about Stylex. They play synth-based post-rock that teeters on the edges of being both danceable and not, and always seem inches away from descending into the kind of ironic, pop-techno that passes for funny in bands like Aquabats or Ween. But they don’t. Call it smarts, call it balls, call it learning the right lessons from fellow Ohioans like Devo and Pere Ubu, but Stylex hits hard and often, and you can dance to it.



This is their fourth full-length, and on tracks like “ Escaper”, “Thanks To Meet You” and “The Game” you can easily see a band hitting its stride both in terms of confidence and absorption of its influences. Though Stylex seem like a walking encyclopedia of post-punk and 80’s Ohio experimentation, they are a band with ideas of their own to spare, and more than most bands you’ll hear this month. “Tight Scrapes” rocks hard, jiggles when it wants to, and is smarter than the average Prodigy. ~Mike Wood



kenji siratori says:

StylEX upload the brain universe that compressed the acidHUMANIX

infectious disease of a chemical=anthropoid to the biocapturism corpse

feti=streaming circuit of this abolition world.

the village voice says:

The musical equivalent of the Japanese hero Godzilla, Stylex are at war with the same technological nightmare that spawned them and that threatens the very existence of humankind. But instead of battling nuclear fallout monsters from outer space with fire breath and eye lasers, they use guitar and screaming with Devo/Trans Am synth sounds in reverse.

Slug Magazine says:

Tight Scrapes is half nostalgic of traditional New York Punk and eighties pop, and half awesome evolution of danceable rock. Vocals on pizzicato drive side-by-side 8-bit wobbling synth wheels and digital effects that never repeat throughout a forty-minute time-trial. It's a lovely little record; Stylex pushes nearly every song to their ultimate climax and decimation inside three and a half minutes. The first-person lyrics are equal parts of absurdly frank and frankly absurd – funny and obvious in some moments, and cross-eyed in others. – Josh Nordin

Stylex has shared the stage with:

the Liars, Enon, Hot Hot Heat, the Yeah yeah yeahs, Detachment kit, Oneida, Xiu Xiu, Ted Leo, We Regazzi, I am the World Trade Center, Thunderbirds Are Now!, The Chinese Stars, Season to Risk and The Planet The.

Stylex has played shows in:

Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland, St. Louis, Des Moines, Oklahoma City, Cincinnati, Minneapolis, NYC, Albany, Boston, New Haven and Jersey City.