I recently downloaded the demo of Fruity Loops again. I’d say that it’s reminded me how fun it is to love software, if not for the fact that I received We Love Katamari for Christmas. It’s really very fun. With Fruity Loops, you can do everything from crazy, weird breakbeat rhythms to fun, crazy synthesizers, and I’ve been experimenting with both and everything in between. If you use it right, you can concoct some genius-level electro-pop with a couple of mouse clicks; however, picking the right clicks is the tough part.

Ghetto Pony have got making the right clicks down to a science. Their album, Post Apocalyptic Bubblegum Music, is a mind-bending mixture of beats and live instrumentation, harsh production values shielding precious pop metals, heavy electronics combined with, inexplicably, pianos. Opener “All The Good Kids” establishes this, with its glitchy beats, distorted vocal hooks, and ridiculously twee piano bits. It’s a killer couple of minutes, bringing a cheesy but satisfied smile to your face and making you kind of want to learn how to play the piano bits so you can impress your friends. Then you realize that nobody will have heard of a band that spray-paints its CDs in order to decorate them.

Mid-album highlight “Make Believe,” though, is the real track to be listening to. Maudlin piano chords and wistful singing float over tense electronic beats, and then it goes raw but tense, like they’re letting go as much energy as they possibly dare. Effects are layered onto a wordless chorus, distorting the lead singer’s voice into a sound new and disturbing. “What an ugly feeling,” the second verse begins, and somehow you can sympathize.

Ghetto Pony are dynamic but should, by all logic, not be; they should be lifeless and contrived. Instead, they combine unlikely elements—zealous pop, abrasive beat-noises, and unusual instrumentation—into something likeable and compelling. “Post Apocalyptic” might be a little over-ambitious, but for the few people who discover Ghetto Pony they will stick with the music for a while.

[e-mail Ghetto Pony and let them know that you want a copy of Post Apocalyptic Bubblegum Music here]