Search - Broadcast :: Haha Sound

Disorderly conduct

David M. Madden | salt lake, utah United States | 01/19/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"It's a bit tricky to be a musician today, for many reasons. In particular, the endless directions and methods available to composers, something artists of the 20th century fought tooth and nail to provide, can prove paralytical when you're approaching a "blank canvas". Throw the ready availability of computers into the mix and it's overwhelming. Just how the hell does one limit his possibilities and actually complete a piece of music?



Broadcast had a novel idea: use it all.



HaHa Sound is a good example what a talented band can do in an era of infinite possibilities. Truly, the album's diversity knows very few limits and reads like a musical history lesson. Psychedelia, classic electroacoustics, rock, folk and even Bach-like fugues fight for the spotlight, yet never get in each other's way. "Colour Me In" begins with a (pre-drug addled) Marianne Faithfull tune, seemingly infected by broken machines: almost-identifiable samples (I think there's a bike falling off the porch in there) explode, bubble and mesh with buzzing 8-bit string sounds, harpsichord/carousel melodies and Trish Keenan's straight-out-of-a-time-machine, Euro-hippie-chic vocals. "Pendulum" shifts gears with steady lo-fi drums, organ licks and Venusian guitars; it shoegazes and glides like the greatest My Bloody Valentine B-side ever. "Before We Begin" conjures images of a kitsch-stuffed video -- all cheesy star-wipes, spinning lights and hippie slogans painted across go-go dancers' midsections.



Broadcast have done some serious research, evident in their impeccable explorations, but their true genius is their ability to work with structured and not-so-structured ideas and make them feel natural. Most of the songs on HaHa Sound begin with a clear melody (usually held down in the vocals) and some other steady pattern (drums, synth blobs). These are pitched against complete dissonance created by guitars, laptops and microtonal synths -- I can't imagine how Keenan keeps her pitch when she's playing live. It's as if two bands collided onstage, but somehow fused their polar opposite personalities to make something organic, even if that cohesion sometimes hangs by a thread ("Distorsion", "Hawk").



Broadcast evidently have no qualms about living in ambiguity, using whatever tools are available and turning chaos into catchy cohesion. As a result, HaHa Sound is a disorderly delight.





"

Colour Me In

Stargrazer | deep in the heart of Michigan | 04/07/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Using the fractured sounds of familiarity, Broadcast feeds us our avant-garde veggies within a warm and embracing web of songwriting. Take away vocals and melodies and you find yourself left with tendrils and wires of sound and samples, echo-y drums, and minimal keyboard figures. Sonic density doesn't seem to be Broadcast's mission -- conceptual density does.



Upon this open-work of sounds which veer from vintage to unidentifiable, songs of an equally undefinable mood are spun. Some seem sunburned, some seem socially provacative, some seem ambiguous, in the code-language of dreams.



So we have infectious, sweet, catchy, and subversive songs couched in artificial sepia and fading technicolor. The Stereolab/Ladytron comparisons begin to drop away as Broadcast's deep well of ideas comes to the fore. Like an update of The United States Of America, a gentle go-go/girlpop vibe, a blender of electronic and analog sounds, and a reverence for past and present as bedmates, Broadcast's "HaHa Sound" sets a new bar -- perhaps not as instantaneously catchy as "Tender Buttons" -- one with real staying power which lingers in the ear long after listening."