Imagine yourself trapped in a 1980s video arcade. Every machine is whirring around you, emanating a wall of digital soundtracks and various mechanical hues.
Then, suddenly, you are attacked by a troupe of Broadway-singing ninjas dressed in Victorian corsets and powdered wigs. There’s nothing you can do as the blip-blip dance beats and soaring voices overtake your entire being, forcing your body into a surprisingly well-timed flesh breakdance.
This is very much the experience of Fischerspooner’s #1.
Art Institute of Chicago schoolmates Warren Fischer and Casey Spooner have bundled up all their art-school angst and hurled it upon the States (the duo is already huge in foreign lands, where dance music is much more beloved and lives are un-mocked) with their debut album.
Spooner and Fischer take care of all compositional work and almost all of the vocal and instrumental duties, but they still have a posse that rivals that of Snoop Dogg. Fischerspooner employ a whole slew of dancers, backup singers, choreographers and makeup and costume designers.
Sometimes the group does get caught in the idea of just plain “bein’ artsy,” and this hinders Fischerspooner as its quest to establish an image and a style and a hype can at times overshadow its musical attentions.
But this doesn’t keep the group from creating a genre-welding miasma of Kraftwerk beats and electronic-melody noise. When its on, Fischerspooner can sound like post-punk greats, Wire reincarnated as a synth-wielding android toting a hard drive full of ’80s new wave and the precision fuzz n’ beats of ’70s experimental electronic music.
The move-your-body groove of the duo’s hit single “Emerge” is more addictive than a box full of Pop Rocks and illustrates the group’s immediate appeal. In the song, Spooner labels his music as “hypermediocrity” amidst a barrage of neo-inspirational lingo and a pounding bass line. Also included, as an unlisted bonus track, is the club-ready Junkie XL remix of the song, which is elongated but equally body-knockin’.
The next single, “15th,” is a glacial glide through a throbbing landscape of gentle thumps and synthesized lullabies, as a Depeche Mode-style vocal part (think “Personal Jesus” meets Brian Eno) lingers and resonates, repeating, “It was not fair / It was not there.”
“Tone Poem” is another mechanical ballad that builds and burns itself with a sterile beauty that can only be achieved through electronic music. Spooner’s vox shift uneasily and threaten to dissolve into just another synthesized sound, gaining fragility while teetering at the divide where the organic meets the electronic world.
In this state, even the art-house nonsense lyrics come across with genuine feeling, as he sings, “Where all is lulled to peace and quiet / Is of all places the most appropriate / To illuminate the sparkling fires of love / And receive in turn the electro-darts of sweet devotion.”
Sometimes the group’s methods get ahead of its talents, and the less-refined tracks take on the effect of playing Nintendo (8-bit, of course) until 5 a.m. and having the “Duck Hunt” theme song run amok through your brain during a calculus midterm.
“Invisible” reeks of self-righteous rambling, while melting-tape voices yelp out phrases like, “Man versus nature / Nature versus man / War / Man” and “Eternal, submission, praise me / It never ends.”
But the great thing about Fischerspooner is that the two are completely aware of their position and make fun of art school expression with their flagrant live shows. The only time this attitude comes across when stripped down to just audio is on “Megacolon,” a sketchy romp through one New Yorker’s seedy nightlife.
The monotone female vocals are reminiscent of Romeo Void’s 1981 hit “Never Say Never,” and Fischerspooner earn bonus points for landing a parental advisory sticker based on the content of this song alone. Unfortunately, without the tongue-in-cheek performance art present, some of the other songs sound like an eighth grader digging on Nietzsche and writing “dark” poems about his parents grounding him for a Friday night.
Overall, Fischerspooner offers an album that will appeal to both the classic raver searching for a little melody and the indie rocker who enjoys new new-wave bands like The Faint and Ladytron.
When not caught up in their own image, Fischerspooner are an equally refreshing alternative to mainstream pop and to other, more repetitive electronic groups.
Grade: B
