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7 |
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James Figurine |
| Mistake, Mistake, Mistake, Mistake |
| Plug Research | 2006 | Album |
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There's no doubt you remember Jimmy Tamborello from such feats of conceptual artistry as the Postal Service, Dntel, and Figurine. His latest project, under the contrived moniker James Figurine, took shape while on a tour of Germany with Lali Puna. Spending hours on the road listening to pounding dance-floor techno, Tamborello vowed to make an album in a similar vein. Fortunately, at least for those of us who think the world already has enough pounding dance-floor techno, he couldn't shake his pop sensibilities. The resulting ten-tracker is packed with mutant techno moments shaped into swoonsome grooves by Tamborello's claustrophobic vocals. John Tejada, Erland Øye, and Jenny Lewis are among the hired help, but Tamborello has succeeded — seemingly by default — in making another record entirely in his own enduring image.
Considering Tamborello’s considerable legacy in the techno/IDM trenches, his newest offering arrives with some degree of expectation. Thankfully he delivers more times than not. The former Strictly Ballroom bassist demonstrates his knack for crafting cool, thudding beats glazed over with a delectable pop-songsmith’s veneer. His languid vocals coat his particular sung-to tracks with a lazy feeling not unlike a summer afternoon in the park beneath a blue-sky bed of fluffy milk-white cloud pillows and dancing, chattering birds. This is evident on “5556668833,” where the pulsating rhythm blended with Figurine’s singing evokes images of early Erasure.
But it’s the supporting cast that lends considerable depth to this work. Figurine enlists the aid of John Tejada on many songs, most tellingly on the compelling “All The Way To China.” This also features vocals care of Kings Of Convenience’s Erlend Øye, which not coincidentally are the strongest set of lungs on the album. Morgan Meyn Nagler steps up to the mic with childlike, soothing singing on “Pretend It’s A Race and I’m On Your Side,” intoning the mantra “Don’t walk away,” and “All the Way to China” and "Leftovers" boast the sleek techno of John Tejada.
There’s no denying James Figurine’s powers with the form. His songs are mostly clean, uncluttered and geared for the dance floor. Through repetition he waves his magic wand, pulling rabbits from hats or driving swords through women with nary a scratch. He maintains a steady techno undercurrent to many songs, though ebbs off for more down-tempo moments, as on the near-Depeche Mode “Pretend…”
Yet therein lies Figurine’s weakness: the album blurs into an amorphous musical mass of 4/4 thumping and synth bleats blaring. With little variation in tone and rhythm, it becomes an arduous task differentiating between many songs. There aren’t many of the tricks Figurine demonstrated in his Dntel mode, despite the children’s show soundtrack-sounding “One More Regret.” Considering the monochromatic nature of much of the rhythm, it may have helped to bring in an editor to whittle away at some songs. Most run over six minutes.
James Figurine isn’t out to reinvent the techno wheel. Given thorough analysis and repeated listenings, Mistake proves its worth as a danceable, night vibe album. Tamborello shows that whatever his alias, he stands to consistently deliver the groove-heavy goods. |
| Andy Heater |
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