Broadcast - Tender Buttons (2005, Warp)
Playful songwriting meets carefully considered noise.
Music is made interesting by complexities, but that doesn’t require a particular level of musicianship. Caveating I am already off on an unintentional, backhanded-compliment path, an aspect of Broadcast’s genius is their ability to achieve a complexity of tone using only two people and what I am assuming is a taste in equipment that makes readers of certain tech magazines blush with excitement. Then, of course, there is the voice of guitarist/keyboardist Trish Keenan. It cuts through all of that sophisticated tone to provide a counterpoint of simplicity. The aloof, sing-songy quality masks playful songwriting and provides an easy entry point among the swirl of carefully considered noise.
On Tender Buttons, like on all of Broadcast’s sadly scant discography (though they’ve done an admiral job mining the vaults for extra releases), Keenan and bassist James Cargill take a page from the economical songwriting book of Young Marble Giants, meaning stripped-down, deceptively simple post-punk melodies and drum machine rhythms (“Bit 35” could be a long lost YMG B-side). But Broadcast dresses it up in Stereolab’s love of 60s/70s astro lounge pop and library music, both in sound and vibe. Where they differ is Keenan and Cargill’s love of jamming a screwdriver into a synthesizer’s oscillator and playing the resulting distortion like a video game. The catchy programs sputter and fray, creating little firework displays of interesting and unpredictable sound. It balances repetition with randomness, an equation that hits my ear’s sweet spot.
Keenan recognizes the power of the syllable. Her phrasing of “curiouser” on “Black Cat” and “autonomy” on “Corporeal” forces you to think etymological thoughts about each word. And her vocal melodies could easily be notated, if you have that sort of ear. They sound as if they were first written on a keyboard and then mapped with lyrics. It has an androidian quality, playing more to the synthesizer-obsessed side of the group, but balanced with the aforementioned sing-songiness.
Keenan and Cargill can certainly write a hook though. “America’s Boy,” “Black Cat,” and “Michael A Grammar” will have you humming choruses for a week. The tempo of each track bops and the melodies are simple enough to sing along with, especially thanks to the short and slightly off-kilter lyrical lines. The Broadcast-iness comes in the coloring. Distorted sound effects woosh by like passing trains. It is slightly formulaic, but such a fun one, you miss it when they take different approaches. The songwriting really comes to the fore on “Tears in the Typing Pool.” The effects are gone, Keenan is just accompanied by acoustic strums and warm Moog-ish keyboard hums. When she hits the lyric, “The page turns on me and you,” it verges on the cinematic. You can see the typist, surrounded by others, all styled in the same 50s manner, struggling to keep it together. The song, clocking in at just two minutes, is economical and to the point. It’s the heart Broadcast brings to their otherwise retro-tech sound.
Links:
Broadcast
Tender Buttons
Warp