Saturday, June 23, 2007

The Antennaheadz - And Then Our Heads

Hear The Track Here

With the heartfelt prayer 'please God, let Thomas J not be in an obtuse mood' reverberating around His Divine Earhole, let's turn our attention to this month's addition to the growing list of Antennaheadz tracks that have tickled my own earholes. The truth is that although I like Thomas J as a musician (he's a sax player, along with his computerised personna) I don't always understand, like or even 'get' what he is about. Because, in his more obtuse guise, The Antennaheadz to tend to explore the wilder fringes of the sonic world. Knowing the musician behind these tracks shows me that - no matter how wild it gets - there is always a musical brain behind it calling the shots...

Except that it's sometimes difficult to see that.

Endless monkeys on endless computers could make music like this, but Thomas J seems to thrive on the chaos he causes his listeners, and despite endless groans and acres of 'huh?'s nothing seems to stop him. Thankfully, on first playing. And Then Our Heads doesn't stray to far into the darker, wilder undergrowth and is - for The Antennaheadz anyway - reasonably accessible and almost (dare I say this?) dance material. There's a loping squelch bass that sets the tone and meter of the track and it doesn't move about too far from that initial groove.

Having said that, it does build up a sufficient head of steam that when the track starts ramping itself up (around 2:20) the progression is natural and then kick in the ass from this section is pretty damn smart. Eventually I found myself warming to this track, from the Linn drum samples to that wild build, it is considerably more mainstream than the bulk of material I have heard from this quarter in a while. As such, I think it will do The Antennaheadz a lot of good because material like this will only open people up to their wilder works.

Excellently paced, electronic dance music. Recommended.

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