Customer Reviews

Haha Sound

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

What is Broadcast? Broadcast is dreamy, swirly indie-pop-rock that manages to be experimental and familiar all at once, with hints of jazz, trip-hop, and general melodic confusion. Does the British band's third release, "Haha Sound," pull itself together into a good album? In a word, yes.

A gently dischordant opener kicks off the entrancing, quirky "Colour Me In." Following it up is the slightly staticky rockers like "Pendulum" and the vaguely spooky "Man is Not A Bird," sparkly pop like "Lunch Hour Pops" and "Ominous Cloud," and offbeat ballads like "Before We Begin" and the ethereal "Valerie." Not to mention stately soundscapes like the shimmering "Minim" and experimental spazzing in "Distorsion."

You don't really expect rock to be pretty, or pop to explore new musical ground. But Broadcast manages both at the same time. They effortlessly switch from mellow to childlike to jaded. And their music is a neo-60s tangle that sorts itself out into simple, jangly melodies.

Trish Keenan's voice is well suited to the dreamy music; she has that sort of high, sweet voice that is often associated with schoolgirls. But in some songs like "Little Bell," her voice dips down and becomes much throatier. Okay, you can't really understand what she's saying, but if you dig down to the lyrics, you'll get some evocative, wintry songs with lots of references to sleep, snow, ice and cold. At times the lyrics can border on sappy ("You are the only one/To keep me sane when all is wrong") but it never quite crosses that border.

Psychedelic guitar riffs are the core of Broadcast's sound in this CD. But not the only part of the sound: There's quite a bit of distortion and fuzziness in some of the rock songs, augmented by some subtle work on the drums -- particularly the eerie, drippy solo at the end of "Man Is Not A Bird." Adding to the atmosphere are the cymbals, and adding a more delicate note is the triangle.

The retro-60s sound of Broadcast is polished further in "Haha Sound," a pretty collection of musically adventurous pop-rock. Highly recommended.

Broadcast is one of the few current bands that I give two nickels about, and this disc proves that they continue to evolve and grow. I remember being a poor teen who could only afford (or convince his parents to purchase) one or two 'tapes' a month. Of course, I listened-the-heck out of those tapes, which is something I do less often now, seeing how I have more CDs and less time to listen to them (if only I could make the $ without working). Upon buying Haha Sound, though, I listened-the-heck out of it for five days straight - this disc reeled me in, and I was forced to explore what was going on. Come on!! You can't even tell what instrument is being played half the time, or how it's being played. Some moments on this disc are the poppiest Broadcast moments ever (pop='emotionally affecting', not 'sell-out'), yet others push the rollercoaster of weirdness to greater heights. Broadcast, like every great band, has influences and roots in the past, yet they continue to push forward and create music that couldn't have existed at any other time. This is what, years from now, will put Broadcast heads and shoulders above the legions of revivalists and imitators littering the scene right now. With this album, Broadcast continues to move ahead, while taking rock and pop with them.

I first heard Broadcast a few years ago. I heard one of their EPs and was disappointed. I had high hopes because other people mentioned them to me often. But recently I saw them play this year and heard this new full album. I was excited by it. It seems like everything you would want in a record: psychedelic, dreamy, and rhythmic... You often hear John Barry and Morricione mentioned when people talk about Broadcast. I think that Broadcast takes soundtrack music to a more interesting and darker place. "Pendulum" is a great song and it's great that they include it on this album. Where other bands like them have either went electro or loss their focus or even quit altogether, it's wonderful that Broadcast has come out this year seeming like one of the freshest, most original bands of the year. Songs like "Before We Begin" and "Valerie" show off their more subtle and mellow side. You then remember that they are on Warp Records and not some independent French label. The album length allows them to explore sound and use noise. They do this as well as more regular songs. It's important in music today to be original and not just rehash your record collection. Broadcast are definitely one of those special groups that have a distinct sound that looks forward and backwards, and celebrates everything great in music about right now. History is bunk. Hopefully more people will stop following trends and worrying about what is cool, and just listen to bands like Broadcast. Who cares about your haircut?

It's a bit tricky to be a musician today, for many reasons. In particular, the endless directions and methods available to composers, something artists of the 20th century fought tooth and nail to provide, can prove paralytical when you're approaching a "blank canvas". Throw the ready availability of computers into the mix and it's overwhelming. Just how the hell does one limit his possibilities and actually complete a piece of music?

Broadcast had a novel idea: use it all.

HaHa Sound is a good example what a talented band can do in an era of infinite possibilities. Truly, the album's diversity knows very few limits and reads like a musical history lesson. Psychedelia, classic electroacoustics, rock, folk and even Bach-like fugues fight for the spotlight, yet never get in each other's way. "Colour Me In" begins with a (pre-drug addled) Marianne Faithfull tune, seemingly infected by broken machines: almost-identifiable samples (I think there's a bike falling off the porch in there) explode, bubble and mesh with buzzing 8-bit string sounds, harpsichord/carousel melodies and Trish Keenan's straight-out-of-a-time-machine, Euro-hippie-chic vocals. "Pendulum" shifts gears with steady lo-fi drums, organ licks and Venusian guitars; it shoegazes and glides like the greatest My Bloody Valentine B-side ever. "Before We Begin" conjures images of a kitsch-stuffed video -- all cheesy star-wipes, spinning lights and hippie slogans painted across go-go dancers' midsections.

Broadcast have done some serious research, evident in their impeccable explorations, but their true genius is their ability to work with structured and not-so-structured ideas and make them feel natural. Most of the songs on HaHa Sound begin with a clear melody (usually held down in the vocals) and some other steady pattern (drums, synth blobs). These are pitched against complete dissonance created by guitars, laptops and microtonal synths -- I can't imagine how Keenan keeps her pitch when she's playing live. It's as if two bands collided onstage, but somehow fused their polar opposite personalities to make something organic, even if that cohesion sometimes hangs by a thread ("Distorsion", "Hawk").

Broadcast evidently have no qualms about living in ambiguity, using whatever tools are available and turning chaos into catchy cohesion. As a result, HaHa Sound is a disorderly delight.

What is Broadcast? Broadcast is dreamy, swirly indie-pop-rock that manages to be experimental and familiar all at once, with hints of jazz, trip-hop, and general melodic confusion. Does the British band's third release, "Haha Sound," pull itself together into a good album? In a word, yes.

A gently dischordant opener kicks off the entrancing, quirky "Colour Me In." Following it up is the slightly staticky rockers like "Pendulum" and the vaguely spooky "Man is Not A Bird," sparkly pop like "Lunch Hour Pops" and "Ominous Cloud," and offbeat ballads like "Before We Begin" and the ethereal "Valerie." Not to mention stately soundscapes like the shimmering "Minim" and experimental spazzing in "Distorsion."

You don't really expect rock to be pretty, or pop to explore new musical ground. But Broadcast manages both at the same time. They effortlessly switch from mellow to childlike to jaded. And their music is a neo-60s tangle that sorts itself out into simple, jangly melodies.

Trish Keenan's voice is well suited to the dreamy music; she has that sort of high, sweet voice that is often associated with schoolgirls. But in some songs like "Little Bell," her voice dips down and becomes much throatier. Okay, you can't really understand what she's saying, but if you dig down to the lyrics, you'll get some evocative, wintry songs with lots of references to sleep, snow, ice and cold. At times the lyrics can border on sappy ("You are the only one/To keep me sane when all is wrong") but it never quite crosses that border.

Psychedelic guitar riffs are the core of Broadcast's sound in this CD. But not the only part of the sound: There's quite a bit of distortion and fuzziness in some of the rock songs, augmented by some subtle work on the drums -- particularly the eerie, drippy solo at the end of "Man Is Not A Bird." Adding to the atmosphere are the cymbals, and adding a more delicate note is the triangle.

The retro-60s sound of Broadcast is polished further in "Haha Sound," a pretty collection of musically adventurous pop-rock. Highly recommended.

Way back in 1967-68 some UCLA college freaks got together and created an Album of electronic music to inspire hordes of musical gadget noodlers for generations to come. They were known as the United States of America, and if you can find their one full length album then you'll discover the inspiration for this band. But believe me, I've been listening to HaHa Sound far more than the USA album, far more than any previous Broadcast disc and even more than the dozen Sterolab albums that I own darn near put together! Why? Because this 45 minute masterwork has carried me beyond any part of my existence. Your ears are all that are required, no need for pstumbling about on any psyche altering fungus, this is the real deal. Thanks to the band's flawless pursuit of melody combined with Trish Keenan's Karen Carpenter as a toddler from Alpha Centuri vocals and guest pstarring psome of the crispyest most authoritative psyche-lounge drumming I've ever heard (kudos galore to drummer Neil Bullock), we have the paradigm for journeys to a netherworld of existence -- albeit one of dayglo colored balloons and lyrical phantasmagora that even poor ol' PSyd Barrett was too psnoggered to realize (though he had some doozies anyway)! Right from the get go psimple kindergarden psingalongs like "Colour Me In" take on a haunting otherwordly intensity that ushers in more incendiary cyber-raveups like "Pendulum" only to chill out for the lush dreamy and at the same time profound renderings on hum drum things like relationships in "Before We Begin" where Keenan's breeze juxtaposes perfectly with the brash drum fills in the chorus. The cut on here that best features the drumming has to be "A Man Is Not a Bird" a psong bound to have drummers trying to figure out the scattering polyrhythm with 2 sticks when they really need another drummer. Throughout the album you'll find the vocals and titanium snare sound playing off one another brilliantly. The very atmosphere this band creates was probably a herculean undertaking (in other words just getting the sound right), and I can't thank them enough. It's far too rich a psound and far too many wonderful noises made to catch everything in one listening. Granted, this may be why people may not get it and why it's so hard for the band to churn stuff like this out on a budget, but God Bless 'em for what they've accomplished. The USofA had the same problem back when their interstellar pstuff was obscure as it is 35 years later. Let's just hope this album isn't as hard to get as The USofA's album and, for that matter, Broadcast's Noise Made By People album are now.

I heard this album in a coffeehouse and had to ask what it was. It completely enthralled me from start to finish.
There are very good songs here, each of them set in a beguiling landscape of noise controlled like I've never heard before...What impresses me most is that the musicians seem to inhabit the unused spaces of effects processors (the very parts which most musicians who use them try to avoid). The sound of these songs is as important as the melodic material they project (many bands try to do this, but "HAHA Sound" is the most successful balancing of the two I've ever heard). And Broadcast seem to enjoy playing in 6/8 time, a lost current of pop music. One of 2003's best.

I've been following Broadcast for a while now, since their first single really. While I thought that single had tons of potential (and was on Duophonic (I was a massive Stereolab obsessive in those days)) I thought that their first album failed to live up to that potential. On a whim I purchased the Pendulum single and was blown away by the A side. When Haha Sound came out I picked it up and I am now a total convert. This album combines elements of Stereolab, Portishead and Syd Barrett era Pink Floyd in to one spectacular piece of Acid/psych rock. Haha Sound manages to combine the worlds of Jefferson Airplane, The Strawberry Alarm Clock with the modern creepiness of bands like Portishead and Trickey while maintaining the ethereal Space-age bachelor pad feel and melodic influence of Stereolab. This is Broadcast's breakthrough album and one that should sit in your collection proudly on your CD shelf.

These guys get compared to Stereolab quite a bit (which is good in my book) BUT they definately come up with something new here and it is truly amazing.The production on this album is nothing short of brilliant and the 3 years they spent in the studio creating/honing this masterwork really shows.Destined to be a favorite of anyone who appreciates genius in the musical form.HOOORAY FOR GOOD MUSIC!

Broadcast seem to continue their angular pop fashions with Ha Ha Sound, their second full album. Even though their melodies are as slanted as ever, this album isn't quite as compelling as The Noise Made By People. "Pendulum," the first single, doesn't quite make the impact that it should -- it sounds more like Ladytron than the Broadcast we know and love. "Before We Begin" is Burt Bacharach on acid; "Man Is Not a Bird" and "Lunch Hour Pope" are both similarly peppy. Contrast that to the percussive assault of "Black Umbrellas" and "Distorsion." Their playful experimentalism is definitely still at work, and though the tracks are of excellent quality (miles better than most pop music out there), the songs on Ha Ha Sound don't feel as strong as some of their earlier work.