Initially drawing inspiration from a chance hearing of Gary Numan's Replicas album, Glass Homes perfectly melds deeply rhythmic noise rock with experimental electronic pop. Primary songwriter Nick Salmon was electrified by wildly frenetic outfits like The Locust and Blood Brothers and brings that raw energy to his performances replacing the abrasiveness with brooding intensity channeled into futuristic dance rock. With a new self-titled album recorded at Enamel Studios in Omaha by long-time associate of The Faint, Kyle Peterson, Glass Homes trades in the kind of free-wheeling, electro-inflected post-punk that perfectly straddles the divide between frantic pacing and the angular melodies.
With a name that refers to wire-tapping in the modern era of civilian surveillance and corporate marketing intelligence through mobile devices and other innovations in technology, it should come as no surprise that Salmon's songwriting is informed by the dystopian science fiction of Philip K. Dick and George Orwell. But it isn't just paranoia that fuels the band's music, it is the rejection of the idea that people need to be passive vessels of outworn social mores. That they must resist becoming compliant cogs in some corporate or cultural machine that erodes their humanity. Yes, this is dance music. But dance music for people who can't fake it anymore and for whom complacency is no longer an option.