Customer Reviews

Red Line

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

 

 

This is the album you want to start with if you are unfamiliar with Trans Am's work. With it, you get an overall image of what the group has achieved so far: "vocoder" songs from Futureworld, noisy drones from Surrender to the night, intrumental rock anthems from their debut album and minimalist bleeps and frizzles from The Surveillance.

Describing Trans Am's sound is a difficult task seeing as it is so varied, but influences from the likes of Devo and Kraftwerk are defenitely present. Now if you could imagine yourself mixing in Led Zep riffs and thunderous drums amidst these influences, you are on your way to finding out what this is all about. But, as I have said, Trans Am are hard to describe and I might be way off according to some. However one thing is for sure, this is not boring music, you can discover new things you might have missed at every listen (have any of you tried listening to the first track on this album on "fast forward"? Surprise!) and this album is no exception; in fact it is probably the most interesting one so far. Enjoy!

Red Line pretty much picks up where Futureworld left off, hits the ground running, and speeds off into the sunset. The usual "Should we play pop, or prog?" conundrum is still in full, glorious effect (vocoder and all, if you were wondering if they were going to give that up after Futureworld), peppered with their usual minimalist techno, and a new wrinkle has been added: ACOUSTIC GUITAR. *sound of fainting bodies hitting the floor*

I see Trans Am as one of the few crucial bands in the midst of this rock-slump we're in. Don't get left behind. </elitism>

Trans Am are an odd band, they rock in a post-punk indie sort of way yet mix in ambient/electronica influenced "rock" as well. I used to say back when seeing them live years ago (they're a good live band) that they were a mixture of an instrumental Foghat and Kraftwerk. They've updated their rock sound a bit, made it more abrasive and free wheeling and added vocals on some of the tracks and so now sound like a mixture of post-punk (think Slint, Polvo and/or Don Caballero) and Kraftwerk-like electronica. Redline is a tad overlong and a bit rambling, yet it's interesting none the less. Some of the songs are very structured, others are more improv based. Some are electronic pop, some are guitar based rock. Red Line is a good album, perhaps its too emotionally detached and experimental to play every day. But when I am in the mood for something out of the ordinary yet still rocking, this fits the bill nicely. Call it progressive punk for the 2000's.

The band's interesting album approach is both a blessing and a curse, offering a fuzzed out buffet of undercooked morsels that rarely gets dull but never fully expands.

I managed to get a copy of this album as a promo from a mate who was an album reviewer for my local street press (Xpress). I instantly fell in love with it. The album was like nothing else I had ever heard. I don't play it everyday, but when I do it takes me back and puts a smile on my dial. Well worth the purchase.

a very difficult album to listen to all the way through. too many incompatible styles -- well-done, if quite faceless, individually, jamming all this stuff together results in an incoherent, overclever mishmash. "multiple personalities" becomes tedious really soon. it's not well-integrated, so the radical shifts and surprises just seem arbitrary. too bad.

a very difficult album to listen to all the way through. too many incompatible styles -- well-done, if quite faceless, individually, jamming all this stuff together results in an incoherent, overclever mishmash. "multiple personalities" becomes tedious really soon. it's not well-integrated, so the radical shifts and surprises just seem arbitrary. too bad.