I’d planned to review at least three cd’s today. This one will however be the only one I’ll finish. The reason for that is plain simple. The entire day I’ve been listening to the same album, ‘My World Electric’ by Branko. This album sounds astonishing. It’s hard to believe that this is in fact a debut album of this Dutch band. The overall sound of the album is in one word perfect. The mixing was done by none less than Brad Gilderman (Outkast, Tom Petty and Brain Wilson) who did an excellent job. Every song has a distinctive vibe, is catchy as hell and truly a piece of art.

Jacko Kreukniet is the band’s driving force.

He’s the one that wrote down most of the melodies and lyrics. The poppy sound is the work of Ben Fransma, whose main interest lies in beats, synths and samples. Don’t expect repeating samples that start to annoy after a few spins though. Fransma obviously doesn’t lack inspiration, adding just the right sounds and samples to intensify every melody. The combination between the two guarantees compositions which balance between heavy and popular rock.

With the proper promoting there’s no way back for Branko. ‘My World Electric’ is one of the best Dutch releases of the last couple of years!