Electric Six - Heartbeats and Brainwaves

  by Fiona Hutchings

published: 10 / 11 / 2011

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Review

I use something of a hit and miss approach to selecting CDs to review. Sometimes it is a band I already like, sometimes it is a band who are compared to a band I like and sometimes it is both as is the case with Electric Six. But they had an extra incitement in the form of their press release. Press releases are harder to write than you might expect. Yes, you have to tell the reader what a brilliant musical masterpiece you are promoting and how their lives won't be complete until they have bought and listened to said masterpiece. But if you are too blunt and brash you will alienate your audience,if you are too subtle they won't get the point. Electric Six have managed to combine a great album with a stellar press release. I was tempted to just reproduce the whole thing, but my editor would consider that cheating. Instead I'll allow them to introduce the album to you: "They say that man is the animal who laughs. But man is also the only animal that is cursed to know that someday..he gonna die. How funny is that? Very funny? Not so funny? Since when is death funny? We all have been to funerals where someone implores on behalf of the recently deceased, "Laugh. He would have wanted it that way." Why do we care about what a dead guy wants? Not everything has to be funny. I don't want to die. Do you? Electric Six is pleased to announce the release of its eighth studio album, 'Heartbeats and Brainwaves'. When we live, we transmit energy. We generate biorhythms, gamma rays and heat signatures that can be interpreted by machines. When you put it that way, being alive doesn't seem very funny either. It just seems like one of those BORING science projects they make you do in high school. Yawn!!!!!!! Okay, so we are going to die and everyone is going to laugh. Along the way, we transmit energy and it's really boring. When do I get to have some fun??? In 'Heartbeats and Brainwaves', Electric Six has created a work of art that confronts these existential crises head-on. All the while it manages to be so entertaining that you completely forget that your limits of time/space comprehension render you completely unable to answer why you are really here. You're too busy falling in love with Electric Six to realize that you are being fucked with." Plus anyone who has been paying attention will know that heart beats, brain waves and near death experiences are close to my heart these days. But does the album live up to the hype? And that is considerable hype.... Opener 'Psychic Visions' opens low, dirty and with enough electric pings to put me in mind of an early 80's Marilyn Manson. ut unlike Mr Manson there is depth and real melody here so front man Dick Valentine doesn't need to snarl or scream too much to distract the more discerning audience. 'Gridlock' has the harsh vocal force so memorably demonstrated in 'Danger! High Voltage'. 'Food Dog' has the menace of rock meets gangster. 'Hello! I See You!' is perfect electric pop while 'Bleed for the Artist' mixes the images of a King in his keep commanding performance at the drop of a hat and the inauthentic trash flooding the music market thanks to never ending identikit 'talent shows'... or maybe that is just happening in my head. 'We Use the Same Products' is a Tenacious D style rock ode to hair care while 'Eye Contact' has a funk, almost steel drumming Caribbean undercurrent. 'I Go Through Phases' is probably the weak track of the bunch. It sounds like it is building up to something special but never quite gets there. The title track closes proceedings and starts off as a jaunty little poppy number. I can't help feeling a bit disappointed that this wasn't the ending I had expected. But stick with it! They get there in their own sweet time. The album has fourteen tracks and features guest performers Mark Mallman, Audrey Cichocki, Adam Cox and Chad Thompson among others. If you have only ever heard 'Danger! High Voltage' and 'Gay Bar' then perhaps you dismissed Electric Six as a novelty band, and very few people have the talent to extend novelty into a career. Since 2003 there have been eight albums. Electric Six are much more than a one trick pony and as their CD inlay proclaims, do have the answers.....

Track Listing:-

1 Psychic Visions
2 French Bacon
3 Gridlock!
4 It Gets Hot
5 The Intergalactic Version
6 Interchangeable Knife
7 Food Dog
8 Hello! I See You
9 Bleed For The Artist
10 We Use The Same Products
11 Eye Contact
12 Free Samples
13 I Go Through Phases
14 Heartbeats And Brainwaves

Band Links:-

http://www.electricsix.com/
https://www.facebook.com/Electric-6-15
https://twitter.com/electric6

Label Links:-

https://www.facebook.com/TooManyRobots
https://toomanyrobots.bandcamp.com/
https://twitter.com/toomanyrobots

Have a Listen:-