If history serves me right, the 1980s were all about recession and Casio keyboards. Both are undergoing something of a revival of late, with the ever-present credit crunch and a chart littered with Prince-tinged credible disco. With a career pre-dating the likes of LCD Soundsystem, MAX TUNDRA (aka Ben Jacobs) returns with a third album that sounds so very now.
‘Gum Chimes’ kicks things off with an understated optimism. It’s a simple summer pop song, given the eighties treatment with simple keyboards and tinny vocals. The happy vibe is contagious and makes you feel churlish for questioning its’ good intentions.
The lyrics are here to remind us of the era we’re actually in, like on ‘Will Get Fooled Again,’ which name-checks I-pods, e-bay and Friendster (which is like, so 2003). This recent single is one of the highlights of the album, where there is sufficient lyrical content and quality pop credentials to disguise the lack of things going on musically. ‘The Entertainment’ is entertaining, at times sounding like 90’s one hit wonder White Town, with a Europop hook that even The Vengaboys might have blanched out. That sounds like an insult, but it’s a happy song that will sound even better once the winter is over. When the vocals (which when they appear on this album are often witty and certainly enjoyable) run out, though, so should the song.
There are plenty of moments to make you smile on ‘Parallax Error Beheads You.’ ‘Which Song’ sounds like Hot Chip playing Jackson 5 covers – it’s camp and feel-good and will earn respect from all kinds of clubs. It has the ironic cool for the indie crowd, whilst retaining a real dancing round the handbags quality. ‘Number Our Days’ is a blissed out disco number, reminiscent of a more basic Groove Armada.
But when things get a little less pop and a little more pissing about with samples, the results are less enjoyable. The problem with computer generated music is that it often lacks a variety of instruments and can sound a little too computer generated (well, dur!). ‘Orphaned’ is built up around a hook that everyone can enjoy, but winds up sounding less dancey, and more like the end credits to an Amstrad computer game.
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The problem with sounding like electro from the eighties is that it usually sounds both crap and basic. ‘Nord Lead Three’ is centred around a single spoken word sample, in between lengthy retro-computer generated dance noises. Vocals are missed, because without the soulful pop element running over the top, the charm disappears from these songs. ‘Glycaemic Index Blues’ is UK garage, as performed by The Pet Shop Boys, aged two. It’s further proof that there are plenty of ideas peeking through on this album, just ones that have been limited by developing it technologically.
‘Until We Die’ is the slow come-down at the end of the album, spanning over ten minutes, it kicks off this time with what sounds like two minutes of someone playing the preset tunes on their keyboard, before turning into a charming little high-pitched number that brings the Bee-Gees with vocoders to mind. This fades into a prolonged limp as the final few slow and mid-tempo presets are tested out, it’s a needlessly indulgent conclusion to proceedings that takes away some of the good will earned.
Max Tundra is the Jamiroquai we can all get on board with. Unfortunately, the eighties as a musical era has been pillaged so heavily in recent years that this feel twenty years too late twice over. In this album are the bare bones of some pretty well crafted pop songs, but the artificially retro feel to it is quite the fatal flaw. However, we are in a time of global doom and gloom, this is a very hearty attempt to cheer us all up, and he shouldn’t faulted too much for trying.
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