Grooves rarely eclipse the tones we’re greeted by in the best electronica records, but this just isn’t true of Elektragaaz’s new EP The Synaesthetic Picture Show – Now Playing, Pt. 2. Here, rhythm is as important a role player in the arrangement of instrumental brawn as the actual substance of the robotic melodicism is, if not more so. Elektragaaz don’t have to do much to jazz up the stylistic melting pot they fashioned in their last release; truth be told, the stripped-down homage they pay to disco in “Reflections in a Funkhouse Mirror” and experimental electropop ala “Spanish Moss and Mysteries” is one I continue to be charmed by with every listen I give this disc.
Despite the blunt artificiality of the master mix here, there’s a great deal of warmth contributed by every instrumental component in The Synaesthetic Picture Show – Now Playing, Pt. 2 that you just can’t find in the majority of pop content debuting this summer. While guilty of manipulating the plastic into gorgeously unpretentious sonic might in “Achilles Back From the Dead,” there’s too much emotion and connectivity between players and medium in this work for us to feel the cold, inhuman vibe a lot of records as ambitiously avant-garde as this one suffer from.
I really like the exotic continuity in this material, and I think it goes without saying that most outfits – indie and mainstream alike – wouldn’t be able to stick two songs like “Sister Sangfroid” and “Presentiment” in the same EP in as seamless a manner as Elektragaaz do here. The litany of influences they have over their music becomes undeniable when breaking down even the simpler moments contained here (far and few in between they may be), and scarcely does it feel like they’re embracing singularities for anything other than a specific point of communication between artists and audience.
APPLE MUSIC: https://music.apple.com/us/album/the-synaesthetic-picture-show-now-playing-pt-2-ep/1562621533
I would have concluded with “Little Dancer Makes Her Getaway” rather than “Presentiment,” but I can also understand why Elektragaaz would want to end on a more provocative note in this compact collection of songs and aural storytelling. The former is much more compositionally cohesive and evocatively jazz-constructed, yet the latter has a sense of yearning that leaves us desperate to know where the other half of this record’s emotional output is fading off to. It makes me hungry for more, even if it doesn’t exploit the seductively surreal flavors this tracklist has simmering just beneath its surface.
The Synaesthetic Picture Show – Now Playing, Pt. 2 confirmedly lives up to the hype it’s been receiving lately and then some, and although it consists of only six songs, it feels like the foundations of an album worthy of international acclaim this season. Elektragaaz do not look forward into the unknown so much as they redefine the parameters of what a throwback to the old school in electronica can look, sound, and even feel like in this piece, and for their efforts, I think the underground is going to shower them with praise.
Claire Uebelacker