Artist: Telefon Tel Aviv
Title: Immolate Yourself
Label: BPitch Control
By: Ryan Simoneau | 25 January 2009
Tracklist:

1. The Birds
2. Your Mouth
3. M
4. Helen Of Troy
5. Mostly Translucent
6. Stay Away From Being Maybe
7. I Made A Tree On The Wold
8. Your Every Idol
9. You Are The Worst Thing In The World
10. Immolate Yourself

Telefon Tel Aviv "Immolate Yourself"

Chicago based Telefon Tel Aviv return to the scene with their first album of original material in five years. Now signed to the Bpitch label, Joshua Eustis and Charlie Cooper are setting their sights on the electro-pop movement at the moment as “Immolate Yourself” sees the duo move further away from their “glitched” out roots.

Opening track “The Birds” has a grandiose vibe, akin to something Ulrich Schnauss would have cooked up on his last long player. A stuttering synth line drives the tune along as heavily echoed and FX'd vocals soar in the background. A nice opening and a sure fire single.

Things come to a halt on “Your Mouth”, which has similarly epic synth (think M83) stylings but unfortunately this tune never takes off and ultimately ambles along on the road to nowhere. The next track “M” follows that same path but its distorted vocals add a little more melody along with heavy 80’s style drums that sound right out of a Phil Collins album.

Keeping in the 80’s vein, “Helen of Troy” is definitive electro-pop. If you’ve been looking for your fix, this one’s for you. “Mostly Translucent” slows everything back down but again goes nowhere and just becomes lost in its own synth extravaganza. The next few tracks follow a similar template, lots of synths, not a lot of tunes.

That changes when standout track “You Are The Worst Thing In The World” hits. Most known for opening Sasha’s stunning “Invol2ver” album last year, here the original sees the tempo slow down which allows perfectly the 80’s inspired electro-pop sound of the album. With a shimmering melody to die for and excellent vocals, this one immediately gets the ears perked. Sadly, the euphoria is short lived as the title track to the album closes out the album in less than memorable style.

There’s no denying the talent of Telefon Tel Aviv from a production standpoint. They’ve also taken some chances on their third album, which is more than I can say for a lot of dance music acts. The problem lies in that there is simply not enough tunes that standout to create a lasting long player. But with tracks like “The Birds” and “You Are The Worst Thing In The World,” the duo proves that their best work may be yet to come.