The Works of Drew Tewksbury, a Multimedia Journalist

Album Reviews

These Are Powers - All Aboard Future

By admin ⋅ March 25, 2009 ⋅ Post a comment

These Are Powers - All Aboard Future
If the avant-garde is dead, then These Are Powers plays in its graveyard. These ghostly dancescapes, although not exactly avant-garde, certainly toe the line of experimentalism, if the term actually means anything anymore. After all, “experimental” music (as many bands choose to label their sounds on MySpace) is a nebulous catchall for music that breaks convention or involves supposed never-before-heard sounds. These Are Powers employs both tactics; but it’s all too easy to lump the band in with the (comparatively) newly recognized “experimental” bands Fuck Buttons, Wolf Eyes, and countless other sound torturers from Brooklyn. Instead, These Are Powers ground the electronic manipulations and guitar groans with (mostly) steady sub-bass lines, making evocative dance music that is equally introspective and head-nod worthy. All Aboard Future is not just something you throw on while cooking buckwheat pancakes.The subtle industrial drum thumps push the consciousness into tribal territory. And yes, that means this is mind-bending music. “Adam’s Turtle” mixes atmospheric mutations of eyeball-headed experimentalists The Residents with a sparse, glitch-hop beat. The eerie toy-piano tinklings of “Sand Tassels” and the haunting lyrics “there are waves blowing up against my window” swirl in a murky aural tide pool. If These Are Powers could even have a single, “Easy Answers” would be it. The tribal sub-bass pulsates over mangled melody as singer Anna Barie’s swaggering vocals channel P J Harvey: “Don’t you forget about me baby, ’cause I ain’t forget about you, you, you.” Don’t worry, Anna. You’re entirely unforgettable.