Customer Reviews

Noise Made By People

5 star:		(26)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is the first proper CD from these Brit art-poppers. Twelve new tracks that add new dimensions to their work, developing their dream-like sound into further dark and uncharted waters. Broadcast are full of contradictions, they somehow manage to sound lush and lo-fi all at once, their elegance and individuality is wonderful and addictive. They can also balance sounding cheery and poppy yet ominously dark all same time ("Come On Let's Go" for example). A hard trick to pull off, but they do it.

The Noise Made By People utilises samples and loops less than their previous work. Although the sound is often rich and dense they are not afraid to trim the sound back to the basics and pause into silence where necessary ("Echoes Answer"). Broadcast share a sense of minimalism reminiscent of indie gods Young Marble Giants (although more technically sophisticated, and have sampling technology on their side). And the comparisons don't end there, the lyrics are stylistically similar and share the austere melancholy of YMG.

This is an album that will stay with you if you let it. Recommended for those with a sense of adventure and an appreciation of outré pop music.

Broadcast is one of the few bands I've heard in a long time that can take many styles, and layer them simultainiously without sounding like trend-mongers. I hear in this album a lot of Bark Psychosis, a lot of Belle and Sabastian, a lot of Tricky, and a lot of 1968-style gotic-psych expermentation.

The key is the songwritting. A lot of bands like this try to sound styalistically diverse. But they lard these styles onto weak songs, as if style could completely replace subtance.

Broadcast, on the other hand, has a reason for every effect and piece of noise they use, and this only makes great songs better. There is a lot of meat in this meal, but also a lot of richly dark atmosphere. It all works quite well.

This band also understands that dying-but-still-kicking art of the ALBUM: there are interludes and unfinshed little soundscapes here, but they act as bridges between songs, and run a thread that unites the album from begining to end with some dark, unspoken trepadation. Even Stereolab albums aren't this coheasive.

The sounds of Broadcast bring visions of vast green fields with tall grass and bent flowers on hillsides where the sun shines but is so far away that it barely feels warm. To me they are painters that use sounds as colors....a lot of 6/8 numbers that swirl around and around...dreamy....if you are a fan of the lovely girl voice over haunting distant songs then you'll dig this album and their others...it's not about pop songs on this album, it's music medicine for your soul and mind.

The Noise Made By People is what good "retro" (for lack of a better term) music should sound like. The fact is, it sounds like a lost 60's pop record rather than a 60's pop throwback obviously made in the modern era. Broadcast's debut has a richer and more diverse platter of sounds than their still-in-print sophomore record Ha Ha Sound, and the best moments on The Noise Made By People recall the best of The United States Of America and Stereolab. Trish Kennan's voice is lovely and wraps elequently around pop gems like "Come On Let's Go," "Papercuts," and "Unchanging Window." My heart belongs to "Echo's Answer" though, an exercise in minimalism that's absolutely gorgeous and captivating. Mistakenly labeled as "electronica," probably only because it's been released on Warp and Tommy Boy, The Noise Made By People is a modern day psych-pop/jazz/lounge classic, like Stereolab minus the kraut-rock fixation.

It's not that this album is spooky, but there is something menacing about it...yet oddly comforting at the same time. When I heard the first track, my first impression was that Broadcast sound something like the latest Cardigans cd, but oh how wrong I was...all I needed to do was wait, and their brilliance emerged. This album has the perfect mix of intrumental and vocal tracks, laid out carefully and in a seamless order. The vocals are smooth and lulling, and could be compared to Nina Persson's voice. After having only listened to this twice, I can confidently proclaim that Broadcast is one of the best new musical discoveries I've made in awhile. (ps. there is a slight 60s retro feel to this)

These early disciples of Stereolab's Duophonic label have created a masterpiece of analog film noir. Like Stereolab circa Mars Audiac Quintet, Broadcast build their songs around mantras. Come on let's go. The wind will blow. You can fall. these are embraceable slogans for the new millennium, delivered with haunting disinterest by Trish Keenan. The highlight here is the drumming. Every song has a distinct, hypnotic rhythm, at once assertive and calm. This drivin! g force dominated a live show at San Francisco's Bottom of the Hill, mesmerizing the crowd for the 90 minute set In an album that laments the mechanization of our daily lives, The Noise Made By People somehow transcends the austerity of its subject matter, offering warmth in the echoes of the blips and beeps. When someone gets around to remaking Fritz Lang's Metropolis, this will be the soundtrack.

I bought this album the day after I saw Broadcast play a stunning gig in my town. There is a haunting, dreamlike quality to this music. The pure, almost anaemic vocals and the melodies remind me of Françoise Hardy and other European 60s popmusic, but original arrangements and the use of retro keyboards, Martian bleeps and various other electronic trickery make it all very contemporary. This is gorgeous music, especially if you're into old SF-movies, because this is the aural equivalent...

Being a huge fan of altern-Europop sensations Komeda, I have to admit that when I first heard '60s-influenced, dream-pop melodies of the band Broadcast, I couldn't help but wonder who they were and where they came from.

Broadcast are Trish Keenan (vocals), Roj Stevens (keyboards), James Cargill (bass), Tim Felton (guitar), Keith York and Steve Perkins (drums), all hailing from Britain.

Their debut album, The Noise Made By People has too many soothing, happy, dreamy songs to go through. But my favorites are "Papercuts" and "Minus One." If you like this CD, then get the Extended Play EP (which I actually think is better than this one - hint hint.)

I first heard one of their songs on the Austin Powers soundtrack, and then in a coffee house in San Francisco one gloomy Sunday morning, I heard their entire CD. I haven't stopped listening since.

This album is well entrenched into a musical tradition that dates back to the 60s, while being original and enjoyable. If you like to labels music, this is maybe "retropop", or "art pop", or even better "underground pop", you name it. The pop side of it is a sound that resembles pop french music from late 60s-early 70s: catchy, delicate melodies a la Gainsbourg and a traditional song structure. The underground side comes straight from the Velvet Underground; especially the instrumentation, with acoustic percussions, analog keyboards, and strings. Apparently, the retro sound sells nowadays. If you like it, check out Saint Etienne and Air on the light side, or Plone, Stereolab and Boards of Canada on the artsy one.

What makes Broadcast original? Probably their attachment to tradition (the song form), and their commitment to avoid ironic, sometimes easy effects. Their are not making fun of 70s music or quoting it to obtain an alienating effect. They really like that music, and are recreating it with a modern sensibility and arrangements. In this, they resemble Air much more than Stereolab. The result is at times very beautiful. The lyrics are meaningful and confessional; the overall feeling a subdued, melancholic one. It is very unlikely that the listener will be bored, even after many listenings.

this is a gorgeous full length debut. my girlfriend saw them open for the sea & cake(whom i dislike) and bought the cd. i was pleasantly surprised. i don't agree with the young marble giants comparison in the least. however, their sound is nearly identical to a rarely mentioned band called the united states of america. any fan of this recording should make an attempt to track down their self titled album. i believe it was released in '67.