- What background info there is on newly formed duo CTEPEO '57 is deliberately vague, silly or both. The pair are choosing to remain anonymous for now, but have previously been involved in multiple projects. They share an obsession with 1950s culture, have a "massive" collection of Marlon Brando memorabilia and apparently "insist that the Cold War isn't over and claim that Russian astronauts landed on Mars in the late 90s."
Such a fixation on context is often a cover for less-than-compelling musical ideas, and although it would be unfair to level this too forcefully at their debut EP, The Missouri Breaks doesn't particularly set the world on fire. "Mono 66" is the pick of the bunch, blending swirling vintage synths with deep-in-the-mix vocal samples and a hefty beat. The title track chugs amiably along, its retro feel compounded by tape hiss, old film samples and vaguely eerie, ancient-sounding synths. Closer "Sputnik I" is a little different. Its cut-up samples and lurching rhythm give it an instrumental hip-hop flavour, suggesting that CTEPEO '57 may have ideas in the locker beyond the by-the-numbers '50s kitsch that predominates this EP.
TracklistA The Missouri Breaks
B1 Mono 66
B2 Sputnik I