TV On The Radio’s Dear Science
by 
|It was a privilege being able to sit down and listen to TV On The Radio’s album Dear Science from start to finish. An added bonus was the fact that I’ve been in the America for a month — the album sums up the atmosphere I have witnessed in the US: tension, money, a bigger gap between rich and poor than I’ve ever seen, a never ending far away war, and some vague hints at political hope. From the inset, TV On The Radio get bad ass on you, combining their trademark layers of barber shop vocals with criss-crossing handclaps over doomsday synth pads and screaming guitars on Halfway Home, which is like a grown up cousin of Wolf Like Me from their 2006 LP Cookie Mountain, easing you into the fact that beyond this point they are going to erase everything you thought you knew about TVOTR. But you should have expected that anyway.
Surprises! Horns! (by New York afro beat crew Antibalas) and bubbling and skanking guitars surface their heads. It’s like they couldn’t keep their funk at bay any more, and it is a welcome surprise.
Crying, Golden Age and almost half of the album seem to hark to Prince, Bowie’s ‘Station to Station’ and even Peter Gabriel, with stuttering head nod beats and understated bass lines.
They have hit their stride lyrically and sonically, fading out their self-conscious wall of delayed guitars and noise, trading them in for rich strings, keeping the textures they have always had but using them to full effect.
Stork & Owl (respect for the ampersand) is a true tear jerker, Tunde Adebimpe and Kyp Malone weaving a strange fairy tale metaphor over a rolling crunk like beat with layers of plucked and bowed strings.
Producer and band member Dave Sitek has proven himself to be the genius we all thought he was, after the slight diversion of his production on Scarlett Johansson’s dissapointing ‘Anywhere I Lay My Head’ (but hey everyone’s gotta get paid).
He combines drum machines and programmed beats and synths with live instrumentation, layering without overcomplicating, adding gradually — particularly on the slower ballads: Love Dog reaching the similar ecstatic points of Bjorks Joga, with an outro of a filtered cascading beat playing across epic strings.
Maybe he has laid off the weed a little — ‘sitting in my underwear doing bong hits is how I get a mix to gel’ (from an interview with Remix magazine). Or maybe he hit it harder?
Every song has it’s won merit.
It cements the fact that TVOTR have made a focused, funky, emotional, complex album, a struggle between doom and hope, at once experimental and avant garde but also managing to be Pop.
I wish I was still here to see them at The Brooklyn Masonic Temple in October. But I have to wait until they come to Australia.
Tagged: Brooklyn bands, pop music
RELATED
The Management before they were MGMT
Who would have thought that an abbreviation could make such a difference? This track is from the older, and in my opinion, better The Management, before they went by the name, MGMT.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Bird of Youth’s Bombs Away single
Bird of Youth have announced the May 24 release of their debut album, Defender. Fronted by Beth Wawerna, Bird of Youth have spent the past year carving out a space for themselves in the crowded waters of Brooklyn’s indie rock ocean, pairing thoughtful and ornate lyricism with intricate pop songcraft.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Sin Fang releases debut single off forthcoming LP
Iceland’s Sindri Már Sigfsson or Sin Fang (formerly Sin Fang Bous of Seabear) has released the first track off his forthcoming sophomore album, Summer Echoes, set for release March 15 on Morr Music.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Also by JAI PYNE
The Paper Mill fundraiser in Sydney tonight
Borne out of a desire to invigorate Sydney’s sedate CBD with some beautiful and engaging works of art, The Paper Mill is a new artist run space smack bang in the financial district, on Angel Place. I remember being dumbstruck by the majesty of Grizzly Bear this Sydney Festival, and looking next door to the rather nondescript Christian Book Store. Now I’m not sure if Jesus is all up on Twitter and the hard copy has gone the way of the music industry, but fast forward to today and four young artists with backgrounds ranging from art to graphic design and printmaking have taken over the space. Read more
I came across Darwin Deez when I was doing my daily trawling for new videos, no doubt procrastinating. He and his band were on Vincent Moon’s amazing Blogotheque site doing a live-one shot video. It’s nowhere near as good as some of the better work on the site: the sound is patchy and the performance is fun but not very good. But it still fascinated me enough to click on the MySpace link and discover that Darwin Smith is a talented and enigmatic youngster. He is a great example of Gen Y’s I-can-do-anything-and-everything attitude, making choreographed dance pieces to Passion Pit and short films about the ins and outs of boy-friend relationships (male friends, not lovers) as well as finding time to make an EP and an album of lo-fi pop on a friends PC. Read more
The aesthetics of Lightspeed Champion
As head honcho of my band The Paper Scissors, I am in charge of many things both musical and menial, and then also the aesthetic and web aspects — artwork, blogs, and the whole identity of the band. Bands these days have to offer more than just a product, a CD, a clip and then a live show. There are people that have really embraced the change of the industry, not just the over talked MP3 killing the record industry debate, but the interactivity and dialogue that artists now have with their audience, through the web. One artist who I discovered recently and who epitomizes this is Lightspeed Champion, the solo project of Devonte Haynes, an English singer-songwriter. He plays very melodic pop with elaborate arrangements — Elton John meets Fleetwood Mac with a Jarvis Cocker-like vocal twang. Read more
YOU'RE SAYING (0)
No comments yet.
HAVE YOUR SAY
Jing Quek is a young Chinese photographer from Singapore whose work has been featured in Communication Arts, Surface, and Maxim, among other publications. In Jing’s Superhyperreal world, subtle gestures and expressions combine with a tropical color palette to capture the real character of his subjects. Read more
Opening up a pack of Mast Brothers chocolate is like unwrapping a gift from a long lost Auntie. The paper is like antique wallpaper, the chocolate like sweet nothings. Only it’s something. And that something is damn, damn tasty.
Oh man, this is good. If Jamie Lidell was born in any earlier era, he would have soul brother number one plastered all over his birth certificate.
Lost At E Minor co-publisher, Andy Howard, is on a whirlwind tour of America at the moment, en route to his new base in London. He’s been diligently documenting his travels through his camera, the images from his New York leg being particularly interesting. Read more
Anyone interested in the importance of limitations on creativity should check out the new publication Vormator: The Elements of Design. Begun two years ago, it challenges artists to create a visual by using a very limited palette of shapes and possibilities. Read more
Hotly tipped by a handful of soothsayers to take 2009 by storm, Trembling Bells are an altogether different and refreshing musical experience to much of what seems to excite people at the moment. On first listen, it’s fairly easy to ignore — one could casually shrug it off as some limp take on Scottish baroque folk. Yet, there is something more to it. Rarely do you hear that high-pitched, warbling voice in mainstream music. Likewise the marching band cacophony going on in the background is both daring and highly intriguing.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Whoa, check out these sweet jackets by Natalie Rae Richardson that are embroidered to look like fur and feathers. Read more
WE'RE POSTING / SOME OF THE BEST
Benjamin Edminston’s psychedelic heads seem to have some fearful wisdom behind their blissed-out eyes. Read more
Baltimore Mural by Josh Van Horne
My friend Josh Van Horne, a local Baltimore artist, did this amazing mural in our neighborhood that depicts the history of this warehouse-laden area.
Get lost in a daydream or a craving for something sweet while gazing at these cool sculptures by Brooklyn-based WiNK WiNK PONY. Made using clay, tree bark, wood, and mossy moss.
Nerd-attack! Man, this TARDIS zipper robe is so much cooler than any Star Wars crap people are hawking this days. This is for the true gangsta nerd.
Christoph Niemann illustrates a nightmare flight
New York Times illustrator Christoph Niemann has created a brilliant visual diary outlining the peril and pitfalls that beset the everyday passenger based on his recent experience flying from New York to his home town of Berlin. Read more
French unisex customized army jackets, each one is slightly different and unique. Embroidered by hand in Berlin with hands and microphone lead logo. As worn by Pixie Geldof. Yup! It is. Read more
If you have a Twitter feed that focuses on cool pop cultural things and you’d like to swap Tweets with Lost At E Minor and other like-minded Twitterers, drop us a note (with Tweet Swap in the title). We have a system in place and we’d like to have you in on it! [illustration by Brad Fitzpatrick]
FOLLOW US
DISCOVER MORE
SO...
SEARCH: Can't find what you're looking for? Do a search..
IS IT GOOD FOR YOU TOO?
We hope you're enjoying your time on Lost At E Minor, but it's not over yet. Got something to share? Tell us about it and we'll look to publish it. If you want to have your work featured on the site, we'd love to hear from you. Pssst, we also have an online store stocking some of the goodies we feature on the site.
If you're a media agency and want to use this platform to connect with our readership, then drop us a line and tell us about it. Oh yeah, and we do digital consulting for cool brands that want to reach the sort of demographic that visits this site.
