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Review by: Peter Dolan
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CD Review, Review by: Peter Dolan >>
The “Transglobal Underground,” as their name suggests, IS Transglobal - joining as it does a variety of disparate musical styles from around the world into a coherent, compelling, and seamless fabric. This union of opposites and blurring of boundaries is a theme that runs throughout the music on Impossible Broadcasting, and it extends beyond national boundaries to encompass the temporal - not only is the question “Where does this music originate” impossible to answer precisely, so too is the question “What eras of music have influenced this style?”
It’s easy enough to paint the style in broad generalities: tight, rhythmic, grooving music with relentless drive wherein a wide range of samples swim effortlessly through an ocean of traditional instrumentation (I consider a 70’s guitar to be traditional). The music is flavored with 80's influenced dance lines, exceptionally skilled use of breaks, and spiced with occasional moments of artful dissonance. There are certain similarities between most of the tracks. There is a strong percussion line, and often more then one. At least one of the percussion lines has a heavy emphasis on the back beat. There are multiple layers of instrumentation that provide the framework tying the compositions together. Often one of the instruments plays “long-notes” - sounds that persist through more than one measure, and this helps provide a consistency to the track that goes beyond choosing sounds and instrumentation with a similar acoustic texture. The sampling is used as both instrumentation and ornamentation.
Moving to a finer brush is more difficult and my impressions become increasingly fragmented: there are certain similarities with some “Art of Noise” CDs. Track 5, "Drinking in Gomorrah," sounds like it might have been done by The Talking Heads but the lyrics also sound like they were written by Neil Gaiman. In general, Impossible Broadcasting plays like a concept album. There is the impression that careful and prolonged listening will reveal a theme that ties all the songs loosely together. Is this actually the case? Hard to say. Give me another twenty run-throughs and ask again.
This is all well and good, but it overlooks the most important aspect of the music. At its best, good art induces intensely personal moments when the experience is no longer ‘outside’ your head but inside of it. More than most albums that I’ve heard, Impossible Broadcasting fits this criterion: on one level the music is playing, it is reaching your ears, you are tapping your toes and enjoying the moment, but on another level the music is flowing through you - and like a fish swimming through a shallow stream stirring up mud - old memories swirl to the surface of conscious recollection.
The entire album is filled with such moments – moments when those forgotten memories swirl up, seemingly from nowhere, and then induce a sharp jerk of recognition. THAT was it. That’s what brought everything back. Sometimes the recognition is a simple “Aha! That reminds me of the Bulgarian Women’s Choir,” but other times the effect is far more wide-ranging and powerful. When listening to Track 3, "Yellow and Black Taxicab," I flashed back to Dar Es Salaam - the crazy-busy dense mix of people and automobiles, the sharp smell of sweat (not unpleasant but strong), the sticky seats of the movie theater, the sound of the traffic outside the theater, the whir of the eighteen fans mounted on the side walls to provide air flow, and the truly awful Kung Fu movie we watched there. And then that moment of recognition: that sample from Track 3. Wasn’t that from an old Kung Fu movie? Was that it? Was that what brought all those memories back? (The fact that I’m probably wrong doesn’t diminish the impact.)
What better recommendation can I provide for Impossible Broadcasting than this? This music has power - it gets inside of you. 05/09/05 >> go there
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