Tuesday, December 15, 2009

#8 Album of 2009: Immolate Yourself - Telefon Tel Aviv








Immolate Yourself

Telefon Tel Aviv
Bpitch Records.


SCQ Album Review

As the frigid winter gripped Toronto and I started each day staring at frosted bus windows en route to a job I disliked, Immolate Yourself should’ve been a poor choice. There I was, miserable at 7:30am, and yet continually picking Immolate Yourself to soundtrack my perceived misfortune. Some tracks were nearly too bleak and concealed to play; ‘Mostly Translucent’ acts as the record’s empty, endless hallway, while ‘Your Mouth’ is almost too fatalistic to romanticize. And when I wasn’t basking in those shadows, I was floored by ‘upbeat’ tracks like ‘You Are the Worst Thing In the World’ and ‘Helen of Troy’ which, for all intents and purposes, provided the sound I’d once depended on the Junior Boys to deliver. Mood fills the purposeful gaps in these compositions, making Immolate Yourself perhaps the darkest electronica release this year.

1 comment:

Kill-A-DJ said...

I heard this album completely by accident. I was only sort of paying attention as the opening track ramped up, but by about the 3rd minute or so, I dropped what I was doing and was just stunned by how beautiful and overwhelming it was. I went out and bought it that day.