Broken Spindles
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Twitching with discomfort, chilly in its synth-assisted introspection, this fourth outing from Broken Spindles is a dance party for people too bummed to move. The disc's catchiest song, the distortion crusted "Introvert", bounces along on percolating synths and programmed drums, a sunny interval in alienation-ville. "An inch away... from ever saying anything," sings Faint bass player (and sole Broken Spindle) Joel Peterson in a rallying cry for absolute stasis.
Kiss/Kick isn't a big album, not filled wall-to-wall with new wavery a la the Faint. Instead, these fleeting, impressionistic songs are riddled with empty space, jagged patches of nothing between blurts of synthesizer and bass. Vocals are whispery, exhausted, insistently neurotic, the last thing you hear in your head at 2 a.m. before you finally drift off. "We all want to fit in," Peterson murmurs, over and over, in the song that bears the same name, a tangle of guitar, a blast of subliminally low bass framing his anxiety, minimally. Later, the barest thud of kick drum, an every-other-measure blast of keyboard tone encases "You're Happy But Not for Long" in the barest sort of gloom. It's Depeche Mode as a line drawing, stripped, sad and boxed in. In fact, even the most insistently rhythmic cuts feel constrained. "A Beat Down Break Up" shimmies on a small square dance floor, every spasm hemmed in with dark claustrophobic space.
These are small songs, formed like pearls out of constant, minor irritations -- not fitting in, feeling afraid, being ignored and misunderstood. As such, they have a certain pearlescent sheen to them, a gleam of unhealthy glamour peeping out. Kiss/Kick is not a motivator by any means, but it's perfect for languishing in shadowy, shade-drawn rooms.
STANDOUT TRACKS: "Introvert", "You're Happy But Not For Long" "A Beat Down Break Up" JENNIFER KELLY
