My first run-in (or rather, almost run-in) with Telepathe was this past fall, when they were part of the oddly assembled Mad Decent Tour (dance DJ Diplo, tropical noise-punksters Abe Vigoda, and these psychedelic synth-poppers too?).
I’m glad I missed them (thanks for being a terrible pre-game choice, Bailey’s!)—what I’ve heard about their live show (think cut-rate Ladytron, prancing around and wailing over synth loops) makes me think it wouldn’t have excited me for their debut, Dance Mother.
What did get me excited: “I Can’t Stand It,” a standout track from last year’s solid Living Bridge compilation, and the announcement that TV on the Radio’s Dave Sitek would be handling production duties on the band’s debut.
Sitek’s contributions here, unfortunately, are not the album’s strong point: it’s nearly impossible to differentiate his work here from recent work he’s done with Celebration and ScarJo.
What does shine, however, is the Telepathe’s well-balanced mix of dance and drone, somewhere between the zone-out Italo-disco of Italians Do It Better’s After Dark compilation and the overtly dance-oriented Animal Collective evident on this year’s Merriweather Post Pavilion.
Although they never hit the peaks of either of those albums, Dance Mother shows the band has the right style down: “Chrome’s On It” kicks off like High Places at a rave until dissonant synths jump into the mix to lace an otherwise pleasant melody with tension.
Unlike their uneven live performances, Telepathe gets beyond the static wall of sound: “In Your Line” takes Animal Collective-esque percussion up a notch and would fit in well on TV on the Radio’s last album; fittingly TVOTR’s Tunde Adibempe guests on this track.
In fact, TVOTR seem to be all over this album. Despite Telepathe’s diverse set of influences, they can’t shake the specter of Dave Sitek’s production.
Really, it’s never a good sign when your band’s song evokes the response: “this sounds like that one Scarlett Johansson tune.”
Voice’s Choices: “Chrome’s On It,” “So Fine,” “Lights Go Down”
