LIVE JOURNAL
JezebelMusic.com @ Pianos
September 11, 2009 | Telefon Tel Aviv

photo by Thomas Wilk

Telefon Tel Aviv played before a half-moon shaped crowd last Friday night at Brooklyn’s The Bell House — unfortunately, the room was also half empty. My boyfriend, who was three-quarters ejaculating at the chance to finally see this band, called foul when Telefon lead man Joshua Eustis started singing. Apparently, my boyfriend best knew TTA in 2001 as a vocal-free blip and blop beat wonder, and he took it to heart that their newest BPMs vulgarly hit 120 and Eustis was clouding each jam with incoherent man singing. However, their 2004 disc, Map of What is Effortless, put out by Chicago electronica label Hefty Records, is characterized by a midtempo glitchy R&B sound with trading male and female vocals, so their current sound should be unsurprising for Telefon acolytes. If you hadn’t paid attention to TTA for the last seven years, you wouldn’t recognize the band of last Friday night — which I think most bands would find flattering.

Nevertheless, TTA’s beats were still sexy (even as the Bellhouse scene was a little too well dressed for sexy). The songs they played from their newest disc, Immolate Yourself, a disc released earlier this year in January on Ellen Allien’s German label BPitch Control, all had a bleary-eyed ambiance to them. Sonically, they seemed referential to uncomfortable mornings, insomnia, or night sweats. The message of the set seemed to project an ambiguous darkness, which given the quizzical death of former band founder Charles Cooper, could have been intended. A picture of a sweaty note on their Myspace page says, “with this song you’ve managed to musically describe the female orgasm. Nice fuckin’ job!” This sentiment seems to capture a previous blithe era of the band, and although it is likely that many still climax to TTA, it seems solemnity and “realness” are a new priority for Eustis’ project.

by Thomas Wilk