Neon Indian - Era Extrana

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4...according to our Mike on Wed 07 Sep, 2011.

Neon Indian is back! In fairness though I didn't really get on the boat first time round so I'm having to rely on what Business Lady says about the previous record to some extent. She says it was a totally great slice of bedroom pop from around the time that Washed Out and Passion Pit were also putting out their high quality debuts. She also says that this time around the Neon Indian has added some annoying vocals that weren't there first time round. To be honest though I'm a total sucker for this kind of thing and this record is making me feel pretty nice. I've got a lot of time for synthpop when it's done properly, probably because I was a huge Pet Shop Boys fan when I was growing up. Basically if you're into the likes of Part Time, Diamond Rings, or the aforementioned Washed Out or Passion Pit, this is another set of mega catchy songs that go straight for the emotional jugular. The tones are really bright and synthetic and there's definitely a Postal Service-esque emo side that rears its head on occasion. When he slows things up a bit it's got a real synth-heavy '80s film soundtrack feel to it. Apparently he purposefully isolated himself to write and record this which shows a real commitment making something that's really his own which I appreciate a lot. Phil says it sounds like Flock of Seagulls's 'Wishing I Had A Photo Of You', but as someone who isn't really familiar with Flock of Seagulls except to hear them made fun of that seems a bit disparaging...I dunno, to me this album's just totally enjoyable modern take on that '80s synthpop sound. It ticks all the boxes and it brings in some new ideas of its own. The beats and the tones are impeccably constructed and finely detailed and all in all it makes for an indulgent listen.

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Neon Indian is the brainchild of Alan Palomo, who's 2009 debut “Psychic Chasms” not only earned the 20 year-old a place on numerous year-end lists, but assisted the forming of a genre that, though known by a few names now (hypnagogic pop, glo-fi, chillwave), summoned a very unique and specific electro-mangled sound. NME, Pitchfork, Dazed, Rolling Stone and the Fly all praised Palomo for his adventurous new sound and he was invited to open for bands ranging from Massive Attack and The Flaming Lips to Phoenix and Chromeo.

After nearly two years on the road following the success of his debut, Palomo returns this autumn with his proper follow-up LP, “Era Extraña”. This time around, we see a darker shaded sound document that tosses somewhere between an 8-bit shoegaze record and peering through the fence of a teenage apocalypse drive-in flick. Written and recorded last winter an apartment in Helsinki, Finland during its short solstice days, Era Extraña was ice sculpted from arpeggiated synth-scapes and scribbled journal entries made during his stint there alone in constant solitude. "It's the closest you can get to feeling like you're at the edge of the earth," he says. "And there were moments where I lost sight of what I was really there to do."

The sample-happy stylings of his previous efforts have been traded in for acid-stained commodore 64 jams (See 'Polish Girl, 'Future Sick') and bit-pulped guitar sludge ballads (see 'Hex Girlfriend', 'The Blindside Kiss'). All throughout, the undulating moods of the record are guided by a haunted three-part instrumental titled Heart: Attack, Heart: Decay, and Heart: Release. Once completed, the layers were thawed and reassembled by Dave Fridmann (Flaming Lips, MGMT), who mixed the album and did additional production with Palomo at his Tarbox Studios. The album sessions there were briefly taken on a scenic detour by a drop-in four-song EP collaboration with The Flaming Lips which was released earlier this year.

The album’s Spanish title plays with the loose-hinges of the word extraña, which not only directly translates into 'strange', but also means to 'command the act of longing'. These themes of feeling an eerie absence in strange new times are explored throughout the album as a whole in his teenage-ethos-peppered lyrical musings in an end-days obsessed climate. Much of this is inspired by an ongoing love affair with the notion of what cyberpunk means in a year like 2011. The feeling can best be described in a recent interview where he noted, "We're now living in the era mysticized by a lot of future-geared 70s and 80s cinema, but it’s definitely not quite how they imagined it."

TRACKLISTING:

1. Heart: Attack
2. Polish Girl
3. The Blindside Kiss
4. Hex Girlfriend
5. Heart: Decay
6. Fallout
7. Era Extraña
8. Halogen (I Could Be A Shadow)
9. Future Sick
10. Suns Irrupt
11. Heart: Release
12. Arcade Blues

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