Holograms

In 2011, four musicians drawn from separate Stockholm punk groups first connected on the job at a shared factory and launched Holograms. Anton Spetze handled guitar and vocals, Andreas Lagerström played bass and sang, Anton Strandberg sat behind the drums, and Filip Spetze supplied synthesizer. Because few Swedish punk bands employed synthesizers, the quartet’s sound immediately stood apart. They fused the raw drive of early British punk with the stark atmosphere of Joy Division and Factory Records while also nodding to synth-punk predecessors such as the Units and Suicide, then threw themselves into live shows and studio work. Their opening statements arrived as the ABC City 7" and the self-titled debut album, both issued by Captured Tracks in 2012. The following year brought nonstop touring. Reassembling with fresh intent, they delivered the 2013 album Forever, whose equally charged songs tried to suggest the reverberant acoustics of a cavernous church—an ambition that proved difficult for their icy, high-speed post-punk style. Live dates continued over the next several years, yet momentum waned until the Swedish label Push My Buttons released the band’s third album, Surrender, in 2017.