For guys who've worked closely with Nine Inch Nails, Telefon Tel Aviv's Charles Cooper and Josh Eustis sound remarkably calm and contemplative. Far from being an album of corporately bloated, manufactured angst, Fahrenheit Fair Enough is so laid back that it's permanently supine. Cooper and Eustis have previously worked on remixes with Nine Inch Nails' Danny Lohner, who's responsible for tracks such as A Perfect Circle's "Judith" and "The Hollow," as well as Eminem's "The Way I Am." In addition to collaborating on a glitchy remix of NIN's "Where is Everybody?" (on the Things Falling Apart remix EP), the pair have also contributed to "Even Deeper," which will appear on the soundtrack to the John and James Hughes high school road movie, Newport South.

Though the contemplative vibe of Fahrenheit Fair Enough raises eyebrows, given the band's previous production credits, John Hughes' Hefty label is a perfect home for Telefon Tel Aviv. The band, now supporting Godspeed You Black Emperor and Califone on tour, are comfortably (in fact, sometimes too comfortably) similar to Scott Herren's Savath and Savalas project and, all too infrequently, the seismic waves of Italian glitchworkers Retina.

Kicking off with the title track, Cooper and Eustis perform their deft impersonation of the lulling, tastefully echoed tones of the Album Leaf. An electronic piano makes deliberated, pseudo-profound statements before the Warp-descended posse of percussion squiggles, bips, blips, and blops take up their squirmy position by the e-piano. These opposites never attract. Though a steady backbeat keeps both time and order, Cooper and Eustis are forced into using a calliope-like sound to bring any beauty to this ill-conceived pairing.

A slightly Oval-processed electric piano opens "TTV," but it's the malfunctioning, algorithmic percussion that holds the field before Cooper and Eustis let a solo flute furnish the track with sentimental elegance. "Lotus above Water" initially features dapplings of efx-laden guitars and a Matthew Herbert-style sample-anything atmosphere. The duo tones down those noodly ambiences when they engage a subdued kickdrum, but at 3½ minutes, the track's too short to build any real steam.

"John Thomas on the Inside Is Nothing but Foam" isn't only heavily indebted to Millions Now Living-period Tortoise, but is also a near-identical twin of Savath and Savalas' "Conditioning." The guitar melodies rise and fall with studied grace and a pitiable yearning to be admired, but we've heard these stereotypical post-rock figures a million times. And I think it's safe to say that the duo hasn't been comatose or listening to Slayer albums since Slint disbanded. "Life Is All about Taking Things in and Putting Things Out" never gets beyond the oblique strategy of its title. A grand piano impersonates ambient composer Harold Budd, but to avoid unfavorable comparisons with Budd's The Plateaux of Mirrors, Cooper and Eustis allow ambient spectral roars to wander through the mix. Perhaps Trent Reznor advised them to do that.

Telefon Tel Aviv achieve some degree of distinction with "Your Face Reminds Me of When I Was Old." Beginning like a sound sculpture, Cooper and Eustis bring clattering, curling elements to the foreground and allow them to loiter and interact with each other. Elsewhere, real instruments and software-generated noises exist in an apartheid of non-engagement. Because the distinction between "real" and "virtual" is erased on "Your Face," Eustis and Cooper capture the essence of Savath and Savalas' success.

Though Fahrenheit Fair Enough includes nothing incisive or insightful, it's nonetheless an intriguing release. Annoying as the album frequently is, it doesn't irritate through ham-fistedness or incompetence. But it's somewhat frustrating because, while the duo occasionally displays the beauty they're truly capable of, they generally settle for a disappointing simulacrum. Next time out, they'll be that much further away from Trent Reznor, and that much nearer to getting it right.

-Paul Cooper, October 11th, 2001