Laptop is the pioneering electro-pop project from Jesse Hartman — the sharp-witted New York songwriter who first made waves as a teenage guitarist/keyboardist on Richard Hell’s 1990 legendary tour of Japan, then again in the ’90s as the front man of indie rock duo Sammy with guitarist Luke Wood. After Sammy’s brief run Hartman shifted gears, re-emerging in 1997 under the name Laptop with a sound that was years ahead of its time: sarcastic synth-funk, deadpan vocals, and emotionally raw themes filtered through cold drum machines and warm analog nostalgia. 

Laptop’s debut album Opening Credits set the tone: bitter, funny, and danceable. Assembled on an IBM ThinkPad before anyone thought of that. Hartman toured solo — just him, a mic, and a laptop on stage. Later that same year, Hartman released The Old Me vs. The New You pushing the sound even further: icy pop hooks, self-deprecating monologues, and heartbreak refracted through pixelated synths. After one more seminal album Don’t Try This At Home Hartman shut down — but stayed in stand-by. He kept singing and writing in the living room with his baby Charlie. 

Then, Charlie grew up. He’s 19 now and he’s teamed up with his insane dad. They’ve rebooted Laptop. Possibly the first father/son duo in alt-rock history, they trade off vocals, share harmonies, and co-write songs that somehow channel David Byrne, LCD Soundsystem, Jonathan Richman, and Brian Eno — without sounding like anyone but themselves. 

The refurbished Laptop is more than a comeback. It’s a generational evolution: two lives, two sensibilities (Gen X and Z), one band. Their upcoming album On This Planet marks a full-circle return and an entirely new chapter. I Don’t Know, written years ago by Jesse Hartman and his then four-year-old after Charlie gleefully sabotaged his first standardized test, this song channels the spirit of rebellion, absurdity, and questioning authority. As the chorus shrugs: “I don’t know, I’m just a kid — thinking about silly stuff.” You can even hear 4-year-old Charlie during the intro and outro, as he and dad wrote this crazy song. I Don’t Know, along with Laptop’s Additional Animals and Weirder are featured during Jesse Hartman’s conversation with Norman B.

Here at Life Elsewhere Tower we’ve always been partial to interesting cover versions of iconic songs. Acclaimed Canadian multimedia artist, Sook-Yin Lee reimagines Broken English the title song of Marianne Faithfull’s 1979 masterpiece comeback album that examined the futility of war, its senseless brutality and human toll. It critiqued terrorism and the breakdown of communication during conflict. History repeats. Swap out the tensions of the late 70s for our current-day upheaval and Broken English remains a timeless revolutionary anthem. A conversation between Sook-Yin Lee and NormanB will air on an upcoming edition of Life Elsewhere.

We continue with another cover version, this time it’s Hence – the Anglo-Danish collective know for transforming coincidence into art present a radical re-imaging of Soft Cell’s cult classic, Sex Dwarf. Hence’s version is more than just a cover, it’s a full-scale reinvention. Where the original throbbed with sleaze and synth-driven menace, Hence lean into the decadent, surreal and theatrical. Layers of modular electronics collide with dark disco beats, while their signature universe of silver spheres, poodle masks, and modular chaos refracts the song into something at once familiar and entirely new. For Hence, the choice of Sex Dwarf was not coincidence alone, but a chance to trace a line back to their synth heritage. “It’s about taking something iconic, shaking it loose and letting it mutate through our collective,” the band says. “Soft Cell’s original was already outrageous. We wanted to push it through our lens of absurdity and meaning — until it became both homage and subversion.” Exactly at the moment we were about to wrap the production of this edition of Life Elsewhere a message came in from Marc Almond to Soft Cell fans that co-founder, Dave Ball had passed. After a long illness, Ball the musical force behind Soft Cell had died at age 66. In 1981 the unlikely duo of Almond and Ball scored a number one hit with their amazing cover of an obscure 60s soul hit, Tainted Love. It was Dave Ball’s soundscapes that drove the Soft Cell appeal and propelled Almond’s risqué lyrics about X-rated movies and sad-masochism. In a future show we will say more about the sad passing of Dave Ball.

Next in the world of Electro music we bring you James K with Blinkmoth (July Mix) from their LP Friend. This is the work of New York-based Jamie Krasner who has been making music since the early 2010s. FYI – Blinkmoths are tiny, bioluminescent, insectile creatures native to Mirrodin. Beings with poetic souls consider them beautiful, for they glow in the night. 

Drum ’n’ Bass the distinctive hybrid of electronic music emerged in the early 90’s in the United Kingdom. It is characterized by fast breakbeats with heavy bass and sub-bass lines, samples, and synthesizers. Often soulful vocal samples are laid on top. A masterful expert of the genre is Ed Alloh, known professionally as Tim Reaper. Surrey Canal Road is from the London-based producer and DJ’s new album, SFS. Tim comments, “I’ve been working on slower stuff this year and thought I’d collate it all onto a self released project.” 

Enjoy and please play the music cuts in this edition loud enough to wake up the unenlightened.