Broadcast, Haha Sound (Warp) 9+
Having released a series of singles throughout the mid-nineties that pegged them as Stereolab acolytes, it’s no surprise that listening to Broadcast reminds me of the excitement and pleasure of first hearing the startling new mutations of 60s French and space-age pop, krautrock and electronica of Stereolab, Pram and Laika. Yet as Broadcast proved on their acclaimed full-length debut, 2000’s The Noise Made By People (released on Warp, the mega-hip electronica label), they’re no mere copycats. Yet while Trish Keenan’s cold-filtered chanteuse vocals originally left me wanting, Haha Sound is much more satisfying. Having given up the task of building their own studio, the band decided to use the church across the road. The new ambience is most easily noticed on the big, echoey drum sounds, which serve well on the motorik rhythm of “Pendulum,” recalling Can’s hypnotic “Mother Sky.” Elsewhere, like on the instrumental “Distortion,” the electronics are acoustically recorded so that you can hear the reverb, imagining the shape of the 60-ft church hall as if you had sonar capabilities. Broadcast make better use of melody than ever before, partially recalling the Velvet Underground (“Before We Begin”), the gothic dread of solo Nico (“Ominous Cloud”) and the somnambulist sing-song nightmare lullabies of Pram (“Colour Me In,” “Little Bell,” “Winter Now”). It’s actually quite cozy music for those Goreyites and Tim Burton fans who like to sleep tight and let the bogeyman fright.
