album of the week - 4.2

Broadcast

Haha Sound (2003)

why you'll love it: not your ordinary ambient / dream pop band

why you'll hate it: may lull you to sleep

I was all set to post a review of the new Parts & Labor album when I discovered Trish Keenan, vocalist of the ambient electronic band Broadcast had died of phenomena just a few months ago. Well, the new Parts & Labor album sucks. Maybe I'll get to it in detail sometime later this year. While hardly ever recognized, Broadcast didn't suck. So I'd much rather rant on about my favorite Broadcast album, Haha Sound, in memoriam of Trish.

Haha Sound comes from a strange place. I don't know who the band's personal influences are, but a lot of this record sounds like something on The Twilight Zone, or Goblin's excellent contributions to the '78 Romero classic, Dawn of The Dead. In references outside film or TV, I think fans of fringe trip-hop like Portishead would catch on to this sound quite easily.

The cool thing about Haha Sound is that as strange is it gets, it never gets lost and ceases to become music. It's not as experimental in ambient sound as Squarepusher gets when at his worst. There is a constant reassurance of melody, and Trish's relaxing voice to keep the strange atmosphere they create flowing. While most songs are immediately accessible, a song like "Valarie" will begin too heavy on the vocals, seeming a bit to chior-y; then fade away into a welcoming echo of feedback and electronic hum. Later, in "Minim", things start out much too abstract and confusing, then turns the page to revel a wonderful pop melody. The band is very good at balancing their duality out and not forcing either side down your throat.

This careful balance may work against them depending on the kind of listener you are. They don't allow themselves to be definitive, and thus may come off as neither here nor there. This is certainly not the kind of album you sing along to in your car. It's something you quietly enjoy. To some, it may lull you to sleep. I find it to be a very engaging and constantly interesting album. "Lunch Hour Pops" is an unforgettable song that sounds like it came from bizzaro Mars Disney. "Pendulum" rocks (as much as their sound allows them to) like a James Bond theme on LSD.

The album overstays its welcome, but I tend to feel that way about nearly everything more than 35 minutes these days. "Oh How I Miss You" and "The Little Bell" sort of go in circles, and kill the mood. Trish single handedly brings it all back with her performance of "Winter Now", but for some, their point might have already been made, and you're probably done with the album by now. Broadcast made music too artsy for radio, but too accessible for most of the indie crowd, to ever really make a splash. While their path was a strange one, with little reward, they were successful in carving it out. Hopefully, they made an unforgettable impression on others, as they have on me. RIP Trish.