The cover says "laptop, laptop, laptop … "The music says "Guitar band, guitar band guitar band". The truth is somewhere between and I really can’t decide whether we have traditional rock songs done with electronic arrangements or electronic compositions filled out with guitar songs.
Either way it’s an uneasy mix. Both elements stick to familiar patterns, with only the combination sounding unusual. There are space noises on the one hand and short vocal phrases on the other, with busy percussion and the rock aesthetic tending to win out when the two won’t sit happily together.
The tempos are slow and the general effect is emotionally fragile. "Patches in the Sky" is the most obviously song-like track– you could listen to it with half an ear and barely notice its digital components.. It could be a sketch by Embrace or Elbow. At the other end "System" could be part of a Prodigy mix.
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But this is 2004 by my computer clock and all the rock synth pioneering has been done. It’s difficult to see where this particular experiment is going. Telex sound to me like a band still looking for a voice. The infinite options that their instrumentation yield make that harder rather than easier. When everything is possible, the temptation is to stick close to the guide rail. At the moment they seem intent on recreating something that could be heard as mainstream, while rewiring all the internal parts to give it an edge.
Let's see where they get to in a year or so.
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