Bis - The New Transistor Heroes & Return To Central [Deluxe Edition] (1997/2001/2014)

"The New Transistor Heroes" is the youthful Manda Rin, Sci-Fi Steven and John Disco's energetic 1997 debut album, now fully expanded with b-sides and rarities of the era.

It's an explosion of colourful influences ranging from quirky New-Wave to 80's Synth-Pop and Riot Grrrl with hints of Disco and Two-Tone, the sound of an excitable band without pretences.

The album went massive in Japan, "Starbright Boy" and "Sweet Shop Avengerz" hit the UK charts while the digital Motown of "Tell It To The Kids" introduced bis to the kids of the US.

The anti-body fascism disco anthem, "Monstarr", remains a fan favourite to this day while the synth-heavy "Skinny-Tie Sensurround" pointed to the next, 80's indebted, album "Social Dancing". It's a bold and innocent attempt at creating the definitive bis document, and it's catchy as sin to boot.

By the time bis recorded their third album, 2001's Return to Central, they had traveled a long way from the ramshackle, over-excitable trio they started out as only a few years previous. They trade all their noisy shouting and amped-up rhythms for a much more refined, almost sophisticated approach that follows further down the electropop path blazed by their previous album's high point, "Eurodisco." Manda Rin sets aside her yelpy exhortations in favor of silky crooning, the boys in the band (John Disco and Sci-Fi Steven) craft song after song that come off like ABC run through Sigue Sigue Sputnik with a stop at the Pet Shop Boys for polishing, and there's enough dancefloor-friendly fun to make up for the occasional stumble. Getting those out of the way first, when bis try to get moody and dark on "We're Complicated," they sound just a bit detached and over-produced, though the similarly serious "The End Starts Today" fares a little better thanks to a more compelling melody and a riveting vocal performance from Manda. The rest of the album is a delight, however, ranging from blippy space disco ("What You're Afraid Of") to spacy Bond ballads ("A Portrait from Space"), but hitting the hardest when sticking to uptempo, propulsive dance-rock with synths. Tracks like the so bright you need shades "Protection," the absolutely strutting "Silver Spoon," and the Manda Rin as a Debbie Harry-esque killer android "Robotic" deliver all the fun of their earlier raucous punk singles, but with far less screaming and way more sex appeal. It took the trio a few tries, but with Return to Central they found their ideal sound and wrote their most immediate, most effectively played and sung, and overall best-sounding batch of songs to date.