Neon Indian Psychic Chasms [Reissue] (Static Tongues)
4/5
By: Matt Tomiak
Neon Indian, aka 21 year old Texan native Alan Palomo, released his debut album over a year ago in his native US, the standard-bearer for the groggy, weirdly yearning electro ‘Chillwave’ movement. It resurfaces again in the UK in late 2010, laden with both a series of extra remixes from kindred spirits like Toro Y Moi, DNTEL and Yacht as well as a truckload of blogosphere hard-sell.
Whilst both Chillwave itself and some of Palomo’s track titles (‘Ephemeral Artery’, ‘Mind, Drips’) seem more akin to mischievous Chris Morris parodies than the future of musical innovation, Psychic Chasms has a mellifluous seductiveness. Despite the online soap boxing, this is an upbeat album that owes more to the spirited resourceful charm of The Avalanches than any premeditated cool.
Palomo has a wired enthusiasm that it’s hard not to admire - one moment we find him segueing the wonky, day-glo ebullience and delirious sample selections of Passion Pit on ‘Laughing Gas’, the next he’ll be emulating Maps’ viscous nu-gaze or putting a spin on the insistent, smooth-around-the-edges Daft Punk-style vocoder-dominated club hooks via ‘6669 (I Don’t Know If You Know.’)
Not the bold new dawn some might have heralded this record as, Neon Indian is still responsible for an enraptured experience.
Neon Indian - Mind Ctrl: Psychic Chasms Possessed by Popfrenzy
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Artists in this article: Neon Indian
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