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Books on Tape, "Dinosaur Dinosaur"
Theartwork and title might be all cute nonsense and adolescent fun, butthe music that comes with it could only be born from a demented mind.Todd Drootin's music has been called "beatpunk," whatever that means,and his live shows are said to be fairly insane. In truth, he makessome pretty crazy melodic electronic music layered with snapping beatsand dreams of three headed monsters. It can be catchy as hell, but attimes it also sounds a little too familiar.
Alien8
In a fit of excitement I tossed Dinosaur Dinosaur into my player the moment I noticed the first song was called "Noise is Political." I waited and expected the whole album to launch into the stratosphere from this point forward. Let it be known, however, that Drootin isn't political at all, at least not on album. Instead he comes away as a mad scientist, mixing fairly straightforward beats with all manner of circus sounds and nightmare samples that would send Mystery Science Theatre 3000 fans into a frenzy. Computers beep to life, animals unexpectedly croak, and robots come to life only to let out a laser beam yell and then shut down again. Anyone that's heard any kind of electronic music that focuses its attention on mashed up beats and widely repeated motifs will half know what to expect from Books on Tape. What will come as a surprise is how fresh it sounds despite every last one of the songs having a fairly similar structure and straightforward approach. Drootin's musical success comes from the attitude he suffuses into the music, not from any radical innovation.
Allthe usual suspects are here, of course: the drum imitating a drill bitat a billion miles an hour; the pretty piano part; the modified vocals;and the massively edited orchestration of instruments so varied thatthey wouldn't normally fit together within the same song, but somehowmanage to find themselves squeezed together in the same second. Drootinshifts from first gear to sixth in three seconds flat and has theability to toss around phrases, loops, and samples like they were asack of potatoes to be handled with extreme force. All this makes Dinosaur Dinosaur passable: a fun album to thrown on now and then. His comedic approach to the music is like a vortex from which my imagination cannot escape, though, and that feature of his music pushes it past ordinary. If his brand of humor isn't immediately evident, then chances are the album is going to sound dull and come away as being another in a long line of decent electronic albums with nice melodies in them. If, however, the nonsensical and sci-fi, b-movie approach he's managed to harness without a single recognizable movie sample is readily obvious, be prepared to spend a lot of time with songs like "Surly Ambassador" or "When Siblings Attack." His goofball programming and razor sharp shifts have ended up occupying large portions of my brain, slowly taking it over with all the weirdness I could ever ask for.
Don't expect to be blown away immediately. Dinosaur Dinosaur works slowly despite being fast paced and unusual. It will take time for all the wires, tentacles, and madness to take root, but they will surely take over. At times Drootin can sound a little flat, his compositions not always ready to give up their secrets right away. Closer observation, however, will reveal a whole world of sound blistering away beneath his beatcentric music.
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