Diasteradio (Luke Rowell) is a robust man in jeans shorts from Lower Hutt New Zealand. He makes songs that are akin to a kid with sever ADHD munching on sugar covered coco pops floating in red cordial syrup while watching Japanese game shows and playing Mario Brothers con the SNES.

A few years ago there was a growth in electronic production that primarily focused on utilising 8-bit sounds similar to that heard in early 1990s game consoles. On his latest release, Charisma, Disateradio takes these elements to extreme crafting an album that has plenty of pop potential but without the underlying broodiness that was found in La Roux’s self-titled debut.

Charisma is thick with highly energetic and bright electronic sounds that are driven by 808 drums. Listening to the album often gives a feeling of stepping into a land of pixilated characters. It would be easy to pigeonhole Charisma as a novelty album, however, Rowell demonstrates that he has the ability to pull back the 8-bit onslaught when necessary, allowing the listener to breath a little.

Tracks like “Kids of 99” and “Hello World” show a depth of productions as Rowell slows down the tempo and injects waves of synth chords to show that there is a reflective side to the computer game madness.

When Disateradio sings it’s often vocally effected, when he isn’t he sounds a lot like Muscles. Even though neither can sing very well, their music works because they are experts in mixing sounds so each element sounds like it should be there.