This review was commissioned. However, it was written from an unbiased standpoint.

0110 is an enigma at this current time. Though they’ve been around since around 2018 there’s been but a whisper of their name in the scene. And hopefully this album will change that as it’s pretty good. ‘S*cker Punch’ is their latest effort and its simply a fun album. Sure, there might be some understated theme surrounding it but, first and foremost, its an album that can simply be used for escapism. Synthwave, industrial, some NIN influence; it’s all done in good nature and fun. Even if there’s a scratch or two here and there.

Oh, also, editor’s note. Each version differs slightly from one another; the cassette, the vinyl, and the digital. 0110 stated, “The digital versions are almost all a bit shorter than what’s on the vinyl/tape. People buying the physical version will get a download code for the longer versions, so a bit different than the ones that will be on bandcamp. The cassette’s side 1 has the full album, and side 2 has the full album.” Anyway, let’s dive in.

Remember the sound you heard on a VHS tape when you put it into a VCR for the first time and the ads would play and shout COMING TO A THEATER NEAR YOU really loud and you’d race to get the remote to turn down the volume while stumbling over everything? That’s exactly what the beginning of the title track reminded me of. A huge blaring synth drone goes on for about twenty seconds before hammering percussion begins. And, honestly, that first twenty-seconds made me want to turn away from the song and never return to it again. Thankfully, something fruitful comes out of it around the fifty-three second mark when the track chills out and we’re led into a retrospective synth riddled track reminding me of a 70s soundtrack.

The spanking of raw percussion in the beginning of ‘Karen the Kraken’ was overdone and drowned everything else that was going on, but just like the previous track things smoothed over moving into the one-minute mark. We’re led into a decent electronic jam filled with the raw and the live. There’s room enough to spare on here for choral synths and a breakdown and beautiful electronic fiddling.

‘Old, Epic…Untitled’ is a fun little jam session (check out the premiere for the music video HERE). It’s not as refined as some of 0110’s other works on the album but it gets the job done and he really shows how fast his fingers can move across some keys. ‘Hillcrest Wave’ might be the most traditional synthwave song on the album; smooth percussion, retro vibes, excellent pads, so on and so forth.

‘Interlude in Hell I’ is exactly as it sounds. A small but brief cinematic venture inspired by the world of NIN. Specifically speaking that of ‘Help Me I’m In Hell’ off the band’s EP “Broken”. ‘A Certain Fate’ is the second to last track on the album and its another interlude-like track. A quick electronic crawl, experimental in one sense, and in another sticking to the cinematic elements. And then we finally come to the final track on the album ‘Plasma Hyper Drive’. Using drum’n’bass as building blocks does 0110 give a sense of speeding through the galaxy. It’s well done.

So, sure, not everything’s perfect, but what 0110 presents is a delight. I’ll repeat myself when I say that “S*cker Punch” is a fun album more than anything and that’s what I find myself enjoying about it so much. Plus its interesting hearing the organic meet the digital, the pairing of active percussion with fuzzy synths throughout. Not perfect but pretty good. I’ll look forward to more in the future.