{"id":6967,"date":"2026-09-13T17:37:37","date_gmt":"2026-09-13T17:37:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/?p=6967"},"modified":"2026-09-13T17:37:37","modified_gmt":"2026-09-13T17:37:37","slug":"the-units-digital-stimulation-synthpunk-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/?p=6967","title":{"rendered":"The Units\u2019 Digital Stimulation is synthpunk perfection"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1044qizi _18mzr4b1 _18mzr4b0 _19wv7tc1\">The Units are a band I discovered in part thanks to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/entertainment\/977190\/no-dogs-in-space-music-history-podcast\">No Dogs in Space<\/a>. During their miniseries on <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/MdCRcrgX080\">The Screamers<\/a> (another incredible band worth checking out), they mention <a href=\"http:\/\/synthpunk.org\">synthpunk.org<\/a> as one of their sources. And there\u2019s no better way to get my attention than to combine two of my favorite things \u2014 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/entertainment\/986564\/professor-murder-rides-the-subway-dance-punk-perfection-review\">punk rock and synthesizers<\/a>. The site was down that day (it appears to be back up now), but I was able to access a version from July through the Wayback Machine. What greeted me was a bare-bones site with links for six bands, including The Screamers. But at the top was The Units, a band I\u2019d never heard of and, after tracking down their 1980 record <a href=\"https:\/\/units-scottryser.bandcamp.com\/album\/digital-stimulation-special-40th-anniversary-remixed-edition\"><em>Digital Stimulation<\/em><\/a>, I fell in love.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1044qizi _18mzr4b1 _18mzr4b0 _19wv7tc1\">The production, especially on the Devo-esque vocals, feels distinctly of its time. But the sound palette and arrangements are more aggressive, dancier, and generally just more modern-sounding. Ignoring the vocals, album opener \u201cHigh Pressure\u201d could pass as an <a href=\"https:\/\/mspainthattiesburg.bandcamp.com\/\">MSPAINT<\/a> song. The title track, with its sped-up disco stomp, could have been released by <a href=\"https:\/\/therapturemusic.bandcamp.com\/album\/echoes\">DFA in 2003<\/a>. And many of the later tracks would be at home on a <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/SNGQYwXN0H8\">Single Frame<\/a> record.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1044qizi _18mzr4b1 _18mzr4b0 _19wv7tc1\">The Units weren\u2019t the first punk band to dabble with synths. Nor were they the first act to largely replace guitars with keyboards and lean into technology as a core theme of their songwriting. The Talking Heads offered a cleaner, artier take on punk, incorporating keyboards, non-Western percussion, and even tape loops. Devo\u2019s first single, \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/mtK6pdUKmio\">Mongoloid<\/a>,\u201d has a distinctly punk edge that would have been right at home alongside The Units. But the band still leaned heavily on traditional guitar and bass, and always felt more at home in the art-rock and new wave scenes.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1044qizi _18mzr4b1 _18mzr4b0 _19wv7tc1\">Husband-and-wife duo Scott Ryser and Rachel Webber, the primary songwriters of The Units, had a sharper edge to their sound. They were firmly grounded in the West Coast punk scene that made its DIY ethos a core part of its identity. Their contemporaries were the <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/4TljnADEbzI\">Dead Kennedys<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/FgiEqbRySqY\">The Mutants<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/cq0b2aGpJ3Q\">The Avengers<\/a>. You can hear it in the lean arrangements that prioritize raw energy over perfection. That\u2019s not to say songs like \u201cCannibals\u201d and \u201cBugboy\u201d are simplistic. Their bleak, slightly humorous critiques of an uncaring world are models of efficiency \u2014 unfussy and infectious.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1044qizi _18mzr4b1 _18mzr4b0 _19wv7tc1\">Like a lot of Bay Area punk bands, there\u2019s a melodicism to The Units\u2019 work that is hard to shake. \u201cWarm Moving Bodies\u201d feels like a dancefloor anthem waiting to happen, and \u201cHigh Pressure\u201d is an undeniable earworm.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1044qizi _18mzr4b1 _18mzr4b0 _19wv7tc1\">The band did record a second album in 1981, <a href=\"https:\/\/units-scottryser.bandcamp.com\/album\/animals-they-dream-about-1981\"><em>Animals They Dream About<\/em><\/a>, but it remained unreleased until 2016. It\u2019s also an excellent document of the under-represented synthpunk scene of the late \u201870s and early \u201880s. Though, it is far more polished and leans into poppier new wave arrangements that are a step removed from their bootstrapped punk roots.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/entertainment\/994415\/the-units-digital-stimulation-synthpunk-review\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Units are a band I discovered in part thanks to No Dogs in Space. During their miniseries on The Screamers (another incredible band worth checking out), they mention synthpunk.org as one of their sources. And there\u2019s no better way to get my attention than to combine two of my favorite things \u2014 punk rock [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6968,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[161,64,322,515],"class_list":["post-6967","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-gadgets","tag-column","tag-entertainment","tag-music","tag-music-review"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The Units\u2019 Digital Stimulation is synthpunk perfection - Silvybrand Lifestyle Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The 1980 record Digital Stimulation from the San Francisco synthpunk band The Units is raw, infectious, and shockingly modern.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/?p=6967\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Units\u2019 Digital Stimulation is synthpunk perfection - 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