Drawn In Basic

Album review

The music of Andrea Mangia (aka Populous) has evolved in a way that mirrors Morr Music's development from a home for abstract electronic music into an outpost for charming electronic pop: his debut, Quipo, reveled in warm textures and atmospheres; Queue for Love added touches of soul, hip-hop, and jazz, as well as nods to vintage electronic music from the '60s and '70s; and Drawn in Basic serves up deceptively simple songs that have an added charm thanks to the vocals of New York-based MC Short Stories. Short Stories' boyish voice -- which recalls Air and Darkel's Jean-Benoit Dunckel -- is the perfect complement to Drawn in Basic's electronics, which are so basic they're almost rudimentary, but delightfully so: the beats thud and fizz and the synths buzz and bleep like toy instruments. These simple parts come together in surprisingly, remarkably affecting ways, as on "Man Overboard," which sets its hopeful yet pleading chorus of "I'm not giving up" atop tidal wave-sized synth swells. At four minutes and change, it's one of Drawn in Basic's longer tracks; most of the songs barely make it to the three-minute mark. Despite their small size, they have big hearts. "Only Hope" packs more vulnerable optimism into two minutes than many artists can muster in twice that time, and "Royal Gold" is a mini-ballad that gets right to its brooding, dreamy point. Even when the songs aren't so sweet -- with lyrics like "When it comes time for overthrow/Our contempt will show," "Bear Arms" has more than a little revolutionary fire -- they still sound charming and immediate. Drawn in Basic's instrumental tracks let Mangia flex his skills as a producer and arranger, letting the flair he showed for layering sounds on his previous albums come to the fore. The massive, shoegazing synths of "Days" echo M83's ability to tap into seemingly simple, retro sounds and the more complex nostalgia they evoke, and "Raimondo" is a clever homage to Raymond Scott's percolating synth experiments, given a more modern twist. More than anything, though, it's the album's crystal-clear emotions and sweetly fleeting melodies that make it Mangia's finest work yet. These songs might be drawn in basic, but they're filled with much more.
© Heather Phares /TiVo