Tacoblaster: Digital Fun-Zone!
(Howlin’ Banana/Flippin’ Freaks/Les Disques du Paradis)
LP | DL
Out 30th January 2026
New album by Bordeaux’s Tacoblaster flits sprightly through egg-punk, lo-fi powerpop, dashes of gonzo-garage, and some soft psych. Always spiralling in sweet, twisting melodies, their fifth album, is a great new find for us here at Louder Than War.
More music than hours in the day, still so much to discover, and now another “new” band that we have to delve back into their previous albums as Bordeaux’s Tacoblaster capture our hearts with their fifth album, Digital Fun-Zone! It is a pleasure-ride, a tasting menu of aural delights that jump through styles, always lo-fi, charming and disarming in their approach.
We are in the fun zone right from the off with recent single Toxic Surfer. Through its chugging guitars fly synths and sounds that bring the band close to their compatriots The Scaners. The repeated refrain hooks you right in before, suddenly, they come slinking in with the sweet acoustic arpeggios of Pyjama. It is as though Kurt Vile has taken hold of the reins to lead them down another path altogether. With just these two songs sitting side-by-side, Tacoblaster make it clear that you are not to expect, that they can take their wanderings wherever they may lead as we walk in a daze.
And, just to prove it, on Jelly Field, which comes directly after, we are in a sweet powerpop heaven. And thus the band continue, each song drenched in its own individual identity and yet all sitting perfectly together. From the gonzo-Violent Femmes sound of Plan B, through the wisping jangle of Wendy, sitting somewhere between The Lemonheads and Andy Shauf, and on into the garage-punk racket of Magic Dog, they dangle a bite of bait, a breadcrumb carefully placed to lead you astray.
What pins all the songs together, though, are their sweet melodies, infectious and contagious. Whether it be on the drifting Toyland or the Elvis Costello-like bounce of I Stay, the trio have an ear for the hook. As they bring the album to a close on the beautiful Sing, they round off a real lift-the-needle-and-start-again of an album.
Tacoblaster: Facebook | Instagram | YouTube | Bandcamp
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All words by Nathan Whittle. Find his Louder Than War archive here.
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