Six-member Indie-Pop collective Architecture in Helsinki are, despite the protestation of their own name, based out of Melbourne, Australia, not Helsinki, Finland. Their 2005 single “Do the Whirlwind” was, aided by a seemingly never-ending series of remixes, one of the most unstoppable Juggernauts of Indie-Pop catchiness of recent memory. It was still making it’s way into my and Emeyesi’s DJ playlists as recently as a couple of months ago. That’s just how undeniable it was! Replicating that sort of infectious Pop ubiquitousness is rarely easy though, so when I heard they were releasing a new LP, Places Like This (out August 7th on Polyvinyl), I wasn’t sure what I should expect.
The first single “Heart It Races,” which sounds something like what might happen were M.I.A. to compose music for a Disney animated feature, answered all questions. It’s not “Do the Whirlwind,” but it’s catchy, and there’s already a nice stack of remixes available, including a couple from Blogarhythms featurees YACHT and A-Trak. The video, which stars a cast of freaky puppets who rip each others hearts out in sacrifice to their Gods, is one of the best clips I’ve seen all year. You should go watch it, then maybe go buy the EP.
The remainder of the album is just as fun and funky, as the Aussies get their downtown New York City in the early ’80s, Art-Punk meets Electro-Funk meets “World Music” on a-la Chris Franz and Tina Weymouth’s Tom Tom Club (if their boy David Byrne had been a member). One of the most striking things about the band is how they mix synthesizers, drum machines and other digital effects with a cacophony of more traditional instrumentation in ways that never sound like what one might think of as “Electronica” or electronically produced Dance Music. They can throw a Prince-ish synth riff and laser sounds into a song like “Red Turned White,” and it still sounds like a highschool party band’s take on a Glam-Rock tune, not “New Rave” or “Dance Rock.” And the killer-bee-buzzing synth-bass and drum-machine beats on the rowdy call-and-response fueled “Hold Music” just make it sound like the product of a garage band trying to sharpen their edge on the cheap, not a Rock act trying to attract a “Techno” crowd.
In that respect Places Like This reminds me a lot of Of Montreal’s Hissing Fauna, are You the Destroyer? from earlier this year. The songwriting isn’t as personal or existential, with lyrical style more akin to say, Beck, if he was writing club songs for hippies. But the way the band blends traditional Pop song-styles and modern production techniques to create something melodically pleasing, rhythmically moving, and sonically exciting via a patchwork of multi-textured sounds is very-much-so reminiscent of Of Montreal’ last few records. And if you remember the praise I heaped on Hissing Fauna… earlier this year you should be able to guess how much I’m digging my visit to the the Places… Architecture in Helsinki is taking me.
-El Keter
