It's hard not to think of Genghis Tron when listening to Cutting Pink With Knives; the London electro-blasters have been steadfastly honing their synth-heavy grind/spazz/pop sound for awhile now, and their mix of vintage 80's electronic pop elements, metallic guitars and programmed blastbeats and drumming gives more than a passing nod to Tron's Cloak Of Love EP. They do it really well, though, and add enough of their own quirkiness to this style that their second album Populuxxe sees the band coming into their own distinctive sound. I've heard plenty of synth-centered bands in the wake of Genghis Tron and An Albatross and The Locust, and Cutting Pink is definitely one of the best, going in an even poppier direction than Genghis Tron ever did on their earlier releases. The earlier stuff that I've listened to from CPWK was spazzier, grindier, and a lot more chaotic, but on this 2007 disc the band evolved into a surprisingly melodic and accessible sound that combined their jagged grind and freaked out synth blasts with bits of old-school hip hop (in the old school breakbeats that pop up every now and then), anthemic 80's rock, pure pop melody, digital hardcore, weird cosmic drum n' bass, and jazzy keys, wound up into super short songs that rarely ever crack the two minute mark. With so many different elements colliding together in these manic bursts of sound and energy, you'd expect it to sound like a total mess, but Cutting Pink has somehow turned into an honest to goodness pop band with the ability to craft this craziness into actual songs and hooks. The album keeps things short and quick, with sixteen songs in twenty-five minutes, each track an epileptic blast of screamy anthemic grindpop, similar to a poppier version of Cloak era Tron mixed with Blood Brothers, maybe, doing the schizo switch from spastic electro-grind to infectious and ethereal synthpop and proggy poppy neo-screamo, sunny electronic melodies and horns merging with screeching vocals and emotive sung parts, hyperfast blastbeats and blasts of hectic thrash smashing into robotic vocoder singing, backwards melodies, electronica, breakbeats, piano...whew. Imagine Reggie And The Full Effect if they transformed into a spastic grindcore outfit. This album is probably far too sugary and poppy and screechy for hardcore grind and metal fans, but those of you into the proggy, pop-infected blast of An Albatross and Genghis Tron should check it out for sure. I love it, personally. Packaged in a thick full color gatefold jacket with a full color insert booklet.