POP MUSIC REVIEW : Techno-Rock of Nitzer Ebb

British techno-rock bands tend to vacillate between darkly ironic languor and chirpy, pepped-up pop.

Wednesday night at Club Postnuclear in Laguna Beach, Nitzer Ebb’s version of British techno-rock couldn’t have been farther from that (Depeche) mode. The trio with the nonsense name played “industrial” dance music that was bluntly emphatic rather than ironic. As for chirpy pop--well, Nitzer Ebb sounded about as chirpy and poppish as a drill press.

For ears that seek strictly melody, the concert might have seemed like an hour in hell. Singer Douglas McCarthy ranted dark, fragmentary tirades in a rasping, guttural voice. His songwriting partner, percussionist Bon Harris, and guest drummer Julian Beeston hammered away on electronic drums to produce crashing, metallic beats that merged with programmed bass and synthesizer lines.

Still, this was an interesting show, thanks largely to McCarthy’s pumped-up performing style and his punk-influenced fervor. At peak moments, when fast, surging beats took hold and had some of the dancers in the audience leaping and bobbing, Nitzer Ebb generated a fascinating turbulence.

In its most positive song, “Let Your Body Learn,” Nitzer Ebb (which was also scheduled to play the Palace on Thursday) boasted that its mechanical sound could offer “freedom from fear, giving release.” That’s a strange claim for music that so often conjured up sinister, Orwellian imagery. But it was music that also kept the audience moving, responding, and singing back phrases.

Not a bad evening’s work for a band you couldn’t hum along to.