Enon

Frenetic waves of electronica seemed to wash over the eager and tightly packed crowd at the small venue where Enon performed last time they played Prague.

One year later Enon will come again to this fabled city, Sunday November 21st at the Matrix - a venue with slightly more elbow room, though the band's following and their enthusiasm will definitely have grown since then.

The genre-hopping, Williamsburg, New York-based group comes to us with some pretty heavy pedigree.

John Schmersal, the hyper freaky guitar/vocal/synth operator, hails from Dayton, Ohio where he and his initial band Brainiac were poised on the brink of an electro-pop explosion until lead singer Timmy Taylor was tragically killed in a car accident.

This horrible turn of events precipitated John's moving to New York and meeting the softly spoken, enigmatic Toko Yasuda (bass/vocal/synth). Yasuda had previously been involved with The Lapse and the highly revered Blonde Redhead, although she is very reserved about her musical past.

Watching them perform on the same stage is a bit like peeping at a life-size cartoon illustrating the properties of Yin and Yang.

While John literally bounces all about the stage, Toko maintains a small private space, almost as if in meditation. Matt Schulz's moptop head and barefoot drumming seem to be the only visible thread holding it all together.

But what about the songwriting? Where is it coming from? Each song seems to begin and end with John or Toko courting their respective computers. This is not your "traditional laptop music." That could be due to the demands of the semi-silent band member The Shakesphere 3000 [TM].

"More now than anything, all the songs were written by this program," John Schmersal says of the cyber ringleader/composer, "a module my dad made."

So, how does this "module" work?

"Basically, it takes our past compositions and, based on the algorithms, it writes new songs. We don't want to talk about it [too much] because it's becoming sought after."

Coming from the breadbasket of hipsterville has inadvertently placed Enon in the same category as groups like the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, The Rapture, and The Strokes - though Enon's wild samples, electronic accidents and clever guitar-bass-drums rock set them apart from the pack. They have been together for four years, growing increasingly popular during that time.

Definitions of their sound have been varied, ranging from electro-pop to cartoon music.

"A rock band with an electric part to it," Yasuda offers as a succinct and simple solution.

"I think we're a punk band," Schmersal adds. "We pretty much do what we do and make what we make on our own terms. It's more about economy and quality."

• Read Provokator.org's review of last year's Enon show in Prague.

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