Broadcast - The Noise Made By People

  by Chris Jones

published: 17 / 12 / 2001

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Review

There's this cafe in the city and the second you get there you suddenly have no responsibilities and no worries. Small tables line the sidewalk out front and the people at these tables seem to never leave. They just sit there, drinking strong coffee, smoking cigarettes, and watching the world go by. Occasionally, a friend will walk by and join them for a bit, before continuing on down the street. Inside, the cafe is neither too light nor too dark. It has those high-tech lights that are equal parts "study in design" and "functional lighting". There are booths along two of the walls that look like they were taken from an old Italian restaurant - deep and cushy and made from that long extinct, vinyl-leather material. There's a long bar, as well, with high stools that are somehow quite comfortable. a few couches, some old chairs perfect for reading in, and a handful of tables with low, designer chairs round out the seating options. The hipness of the clientele is beyond question, yet there is not an ounce of pretentiousness in the place. Conversations about politics, philosophy, sex, films, music, family, science, religion, art, ... can be overheard or joined in with equal welcome and without fear of being rudely dismissed. There's a stereo system somewhere, though I've never seen it. The music is always quite subtle, so as not to take over the room, but at the same time it's very engaging should one choose to just sit back and listen. Sometimes I swear the music must be from the late 60's from a band like the United States of America. The analogue synth sounds and the ultracool female vocals are surely there, or maybe it's soundtrack music from old, unknown B-movies that had better scores than scripts. You know, those movies about what life would be like in the year 2000. I can see the guy moving around the theremin as he tries to make the noise for the "floating car". It's the type of music that has the power to take you to another place and time. I think the first time I can recall that happening to me was when I was about 10 and I flipped through all my Dad's old records and listened to a Les Baxter record called "Tamboo". It didn't matter that i was laying on the floor in the living room with my parents a mere 15 feet away, because when I closed my eyes I was walking through some port city on an island in the middle of a warm sea and loving every minute of it. When I listen to the music in the cafe it takes me to places like that again. I'll bet the members of Broadcast would like the cafe too. This quintet from the industrial city of Birmingham in England make the kind of music that takes you places. Maybe they needed to escape the Midlands somehow. After releasing a few singles and getting compared to Stereolab a bit more than i think they should have (I like them much more than Stereolab), they released a compilation CD of their singles called "Work and Non Work" on the Warp label. Now, after 3 years of waiting, Broadcast has given us their first full length effort. "The Noise Made by People" is something that could easily be played in the cafe. It has a retro-futuristic feel that gives the music a timeless aspect. The analogue synths, the oh so cool vocal style of Trish Keenan that my parents are probably more familar with than I am, the hints of "exotica", a cinematic quality hoped for but never attained by the B-movies, the almost symphonic quality of the arrangements - is it a little known 60's pop band? And while there are surely influences from the past, Broadcast aren't confined by them like some gussied up 20-something year olds swing dancing at the "hipcat spot" down the block from the cafe. They aren't trying to relive the past with big dumb grins on their faces, Broadcast is too busy creating new textures and atmospheres and taking you to places that may or may not exist now, in the past, or in the future - like the island in a warm sea, the floor in the living room, or a cafe in the city where responsibilities, worries and pretense are shed at the door.

Track Listing:-

1 Long Was The Year
2 Unchanging Window
3 Minus One
4 Come On Let's Go
5 Echols Answer
6 Tower Of Our Tuning
7 Papercuts
8 You Can Fall
9 Look Outside
10 Until Then
11 City In Progress
12 Dead The Long Year

Label Links:-

http://warp.net/
https://www.facebook.com/warprecords
https://twitter.com/warprecords
https://www.youtube.com/user/warprecor