Blip Blip Bleep: The End EP

Blip Blip Bleep frontman and songwriter Sean Han has shepherded his electro synth-rock band through several incarnations over the years. It started off as a solo project and eventually settled in as a trio with a live drummer and female vocalist/keyboardist. Through two EPs, a full-length, a pair of drummers and three different singer/synth players, the band’s high-energy sound has remained the same. But with the current members now living in places like Virginia and Germany, Han has decided to call it quits for Blip Blip Bleep rather than reset the band’s lineup yet again.

They leave us with End, a strong five-song set that finds the trio collaborating on songwriting for the first time but not sounding all that much different from previous releases. “Dance Floor Make Out (DFMO)” is a pulsing, sexy track driven by nicely distorted synth tones and a big singalong chorus. “Come Back to Life With Me” is just a few BPMs short of being a power ballad, a mid-tempo pop confection with a catchy synth hook and excellent harmonies from Han and Kayce McGehee throughout. Closer “Stick to the Static” is a fitting final track for the band, with swirling synth programming and a bittersweet, minor key chorus. The real highlight of End, though, is “Super Modern”, a song that starts out driven by heavy electronic bass sounds and weird high end noises but blossoms into a disco-beat chorus. The lyrics, about living your life online and seeing things in pixels and two dimensions, feel very much in the moment for 2013. For a band whose first single in 2007 was called “Anime Eyes”, it seems like the world has caught up to Blip Blip Beep. Sadly, it’s just in time for them to say goodbye.