Broadcast
Haha Sound
Warp
Instructions on how to throw a party for mermaids:
First, you're going to need some mermaids. Never mind about them being hard to find, 'cause
here's the magic: Wherever Broadcast's new Haha Sound is playing, you've got an instant
mermaid party! And where the calliopes are cantankerous, the beats are sloppy and siren
Trish Keenan's scales shimmer over the clamor, everyone's an instant fish.
This is guaranteed to work because Haha Sound was recorded at a seaside carnival
on some planet not far from Coney Island, so there are all sorts of subliminal mermaid-type
messages encoded on every track via submarine pinging and other oceany noises that remind
you of waves or just make you want to do the wave. This is a party, after all, and
Haha Sound steps upUpUP from Broadcast's first full-length, murk-pop album,
The Noise Made by People — which is just to
say that it's bright and beautiful and glows so much with optimism that it'll keep
you afloat in case that whole fish thing doesn't work out (but it will).
When opening track "Colour Me In" revs up through the initial static, those mermaids are going
to come by the schools to ride the carousel (carousel not included); this song swirls around
Keenan's up-and-down vocals. On "Pendulum" (also found on the superb EP that bears its name),
mermaid moshing will commence to the swinging and slapdash rhythms, but those fish will settle
down to synchronized swimming for the gorgeous "Before We Begin," all "oohs" and "ahs" over
xylophones (think swim caps and
Busby Berkeley on water).
This mermaid fest doesn't involve only swimming, though, even if the album surfs
consistently on the same high tide. Every good party needs variety, so there are perfect tunes
for a round of musical chairs ("Lunch Hour Pops"), duck, duck, seahorse (the nursery
rhyme "The Little Bell") and pearl diving ("Man Is Not a Bird," which, with its
brooding-yet-swooning songstress over trippy marching-band drums, could easily
fit on Endtroducing...).
And when every fish is tuckered out and needs a moment for introverted fin-gazing,
there's the waltz-paced "Ominous Clouds," the lazy drift of "Oh How I Miss You" and
the My Bloody Valentine-ish
"Hawk" to wind down the excitement and allow for a little suck-face since we all know
that's what happens at the end of any party worth going to.
Broadcast's previous outings were streetbound — autumnal, urban odes to wanderlust
and searching for someone to write about in your diary. Found love is what Haha Sound
treads on, and with all these mermaids in attendance, it's enough to make you reconsider
living on land.
— Lavina Lee (lavina at flakmag dot com)
