click to enlarge
Telepathe — pronounced like mind-reading, not the mind-reader — have seemingly been on an upward trajectory from the moment they plugged in their laptops. The two-woman synth and beats act has been the worst part of countless high-profile bills around New York over the past few years, with blog posts and magazine spreads about them seriously outpacing finished songs. They’ve filtered all the way up to TV on the Radio’s Dave Sitek, who imbues their debut, Dance Mother, with his band’s signature bombastic sludge. The production swallows the promising delicacy of the duo’s standout track on Rare Book Room’s Living Bridge compilation, “Can’t Stand It,” here given a muddy sheen and a clicking outro of questionable utility. (The comparison of Sitek versus RBR’s Nicolas Vernhes for Brooklyn’s alpha knob-twiddler was settled last year by ScarJo Sings Tom Waits! v. Microcastle, but this extra-settles it.) The album is more accomplished than underwhelmed concertgoers might have expected; the beats are occasionally forceful and the spoken word bits and extended drones are kept to a minimum. But Telepathe still has a limited range to work with, and little to say besides.
