Era Extrana, the new release by Neon Indian, is not awful. A disclaimer as such is necessary as I'm going to spend most of my time here explaining all the things that are wrong with it. Again, the album is by no means a complete misfire, like some ill conceived experiment that births a wretched creation terrorizing an unsuspecting lot of villagers- although that is sort of the imagery that formed in my head. It's just that it's most pronounced attributes are also it's most glaring flaws, concealing the more admirable aspects. However I cannot claim Era Extrana to be a great, or even good album either, as Neon Indian has failed to expand or improve upon the shaky yet promising ground the broke in their first LP, Psychic chasms.
Ultimately I feel as if a thorough and deeply objective analysis of the counters and crevices of Era Extrana is sadly unwarranted when all that is required of me to say is that this album suffers from the same nearly crippling aliment that Physic Chasms did. That being a deeply rooted lack of confidence in their abilities as musicians coupled with their grotesque over indulgence as editors and post production hucksters. This album is at its core comprised of competent, and occasionally alluring tech-synth beats, only to be smothered and congested by an obtrusive and offensive amount of musical detritus. The melody is strangled and snuffed out by a tangled and ill defined web of haze and subterfuge in the form of obtrusive distortions in bloated numbers. I mean that last part rather literally as the basic beat of some of their tracks show real promise. The endearing and remorseful few seconds of their opening interlude, “Heart: Attack”- which is made all the more impressive and expressive since they composed it via canned 8 bit audio tracks provides hints of grandeur and importance. The inquisitive parading scales of their lead single, “Polish Girl” are equal parts superficially catchy and mentally stimulating- and in just the right balance. Clearly Neon Indian can at times, construct a good tune. Why they feel the need to consume these tunes in an unbalanced tide of post production bullshitery is distressing as both of these tracks quickly loose direction awash in a mess of distorted measures. Before one dissents and says there is no basis to say this is all egregiously applied after the fact and argues that much of what you here is performed in real time- stop. It's not. I have seen Neon Indian live, or should I say I have had the pleasure to see Neon Indian live. Their songs are significantly striped down; considerably leaner and more linear. The simplicity that they seem “restrictively” forced to convey is so much more appealing than their sloppy mosaic approach to music.
The other issue with this matter is that, in some kind of frenetic rush- was the recording studio only available for one day?- they seem to pile on too much of this convoluted stimuli on all at once. Too many songs, again like “Polish Girl” proceed from a singular defining beat, to a mismanaged clusterfuck of effects and modifiers, most of them birthed from a sickening combination of overly drastic and all too trendy washed out fader effects and compterized tones. “Hex Girlfriend” has too many noticeably conflicting elements that bog things down in another example. “Future Sick” starts off with a similar promise to “Polish Girl”, but Neon Indian quickly looses patience and throws at least one too many components in at once. The most disturbing part of this trend that Neon Indian have so willingly ensconced themselves in, is I can almost understand why they do it. A few of tracks aside, most of the songs when deconstructed to their core, with their obsessive layering of anything and everything filtered out, aren't that interesting or compelling. When all the bells and whistles provided by the wonders and horrors of modern production are stripped away, what's left is pretty uninspired college rock arrangements. It's funny how a group like Pains of Being Pure of Heart has been labeled, somewhat rightly so as the defacto collage rock band, at least in the hyper emotive, cliched sense of the term. But even with their much more stripped down instrumentation, they craft noticeably more engaging and catchy stuff. Their wordplay is a good deal more and inventive too, encouraging you to actually pay more than a cursory attention to the lyrics, and even interpret them.
There in lies another issue with Era Extrana, Alan Palomo. Where to begin? Palomo should not be a front man perhaps is the most succinct if unfortunately devastating way to put it. He clearly does not seem able, or perhaps willing to put himself out there. He is not willing to reveal his emotions through his voice. He seems repressive and utterly detached and therefore dull. This bothers me for a couple reasons. One of them being that Neon Indian has partly co opted the needles sub genre definition of chill wave. While I won't endeavour to deconstruct and define all aspects of an already less than aptly defined concept, one thing I can attest to is that chill wave doesn't mean boring- relaxed and experimental is more apt. If you want chill wave, I suggest Washed Out. Ernest Greene, who holds that monicker bears his soul on a regular basis in his music. With Era Extrana I can't even discern the most basic mood of Palomo. Furthermore, he masks this deficit, through hazy and echoing filters, stretching out and distorting his voice. The only tangible, and indeed very noticeable effect this has is sloppily mixing his voice together with the mess of after effects already present in the melody, making the specifics of his lyrics even harder to decipher. “The Blindside Kiss” and “Halogen (I Could Be a Shadow)” are the most frustrating perpetrators of this offence. I don't like being bored and bothered at the same time.
I hope you still reading. I want you to know it's not all bad. If you make it half way through this album, you will be surprised and rewarded, as there are actually some pretty great tracks on the back end. “Fallout” is Palomo's most vocally impressive track where he mages to bridge the gap from boring to calm and wise- slightly reminiscent of Ian McCulloch from Echo and the Bunnyman actually. They also take their time to carefully and deliberately layer the melody so it grows to be something just as consuming as the other songs, but more organically rounded. “Suns Irrupt” proves that Neon Indian understands that a meaty and robust melody can be constructed through traditional percussions (or at least drum machines). The atmospheric, soothing yet technical synth tones that slide along the surface complement it perfectly. I cynically thought this was almost too good to be Neon Indian; then I decided it wasn't all that cynical when I realized the drums are pretty derivative of “Someone Great” by LCD Soundsystem. If you're going to steal, steal from the best, I suppose. Also, Goddamn if “Heart: Release” isn't one of the best Boards of Canada tracks that Boards of Canada never made! the psychedelic, but carefully focused keyboards that are sharply cut with pristine chimes is hypnotic. Why is this one of their shorter, transitional tracks?!?!
Neon Indian are wonderful performers. Tracks like “Polish Girl”, “Fallout”, “Suns Irrupt, and “Heart: Release” provide hints that they could be a great band as well. But not under these circumstance. Not while their lead singer has so little faith in his voce, or a void of direction in which to guide it. Not while they craft songs that only really receive any ill crafted attention after they are recorded. If Neon Indian continues to make music in this manner, that's fine. But I'd rather they be performed and produced by people other than Neon Indian. I think they can be great, but they still need to develop the confidence, coordination and timing to do so. Until then they will struggle to learn the difference between a mastery of the artist over his tools and the other way around. One sympathizes.
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