When they met in Berlin in 2022, Maria Manow and Ike Clateman instantly disliked each other. Months later, they met again in London and decided to form a band. Following the release of their 2024 debut mixtape, Basspunk, the duo catapulted to the forefront of the emerging electroclash renaissance with their stylishly garish bangers. But with their debut album, 2025’s Forever, Bassvictim flipped the script on the indie-sleaze allegations, embracing childlike whimsy by way of earnest indietronica and Manow’s manic-sounding nursery rhymes. This time, they found themselves at the vanguard of a new sound that’s been called “laptop twee”—think recession-era indie pop filtered through a fried post-hyperpop lens. Bassvictim’s second album, PEACE + WAR, arrives a year later as an ingenious synthesis of the duo’s seemingly dissonant styles—a yin-yang of hedonistic basspunk and giddy, wholesome twee. Clateman’s blown-out beats are the surprisingly tuneful results of throwing the sounds of Dan Deacon, The Moldy Peaches, Salem, and Bladee into a blender, while Manow’s mostly English, occasionally Polish vocals sound like they’re being sung through a Fisher-Price microphone. “I wanna take my clothes off/I wanna have fun,” she yelps on the euphoric “Summer Song,” while “War Song” channels “live, laugh, love” for chaotic party rats worldwide. Look past the manic style, and you’ll find a painfully sincere breakup album, from the bittersweet relationship drama of “I Don’t Know” to the ceasefire anthem “White Flag,” ultimately closing with a broken-hearted whimper: “I’m thankful/I’m sorry/This is the end.”