DAT Politics
Villiger
[A-Musik]
Rating: 8.3
Organicity in popular music has been greatly complicated by the advent of
electronica. The fact that pop and rock are principally derived from the
organic unity of several instruments combining to create a singular sound
is rendered moot by the reality that electronic music begins with organic
unity as an immediate instance of synchronicity. So one could posit the
viewpoint that the attempt to create organic unity in electronic music is
pointless.
Of course, electronic music has caused something of a viral infection in
pop music. Whereas before it was content to keep pace with digital media and
exercise developmental innovation in the processing of sound, the genre has
now begun to appropriate the intent of pop. The role of guitar as an organic
cog-in-the-wheel has died, and pop music has since begun to resemble a cyborg.
DAT Politics is a laptop quartet from Lille, France. An offshoot of the much
whispered about French post-rock group Tone Rec (of which three of these four
guys are members), Villiger is their second album of sharp, densely
arranged electronic product. It's an amazing picture of where electronica
and pop music meet, a jaw-droppingly consistent instance of glitchy electronics
and massively processed tones wedded to a more traditional musical heritage.
The band applies a more populist approach to the groundbreaking static
orchestrations exemplified by Mego artists like Fennesz and Pita without
diluting the sonic edge of the work. The four members interact and bounce
ideas off one another relentlessly, using shards of overheated electronics to
sculpt a profoundly melodic musical interplay.
The tracks range from miniature exercises in digital sound processing to
full-blown beat-driven electro-pop songs, each track blazing its own stylistic
trail as it develops. On one track, they manage to evoke a horn section
tripping over a distinct melodic theme. The song's subsequent breakdown even
seems to approximate something like what George Martin might produce if locked
up in the BBC Radiophonic Workshop.
Villiger is the heavy-handedness of experimental music skillfully
tempered by a refreshingly engaging approach. DAT Politics provide a vibrant
fusion of electronic music with a pop sensibility without sacrificing the
edge of its musical process. That their work is the product of an organic
group dynamic lends this album its immediacy and verve. Two members of Tone
Rec have recently abandoned guitar and bass for notebook computers. As it
should be.
-S. Murray