A few months back, as a farewell to a girlfriend I thought I'd never see again, I recorded four mixtapes, themed around the seasons of the year. An aloof emotional gesture, to be sure. The tapes traced the story of our relationship-- from the carefree delight of summer, through the bittersweet grandeur of autumn, the desolate alienation of winter and the transcendent majesty of spring. Yeah, I'm a geek. So are you.
If 1999's anthemic Source Material compilation embodied the breezy spirit of June and July, and the sorrow-tinged tones of Kreidler's "Au Pair" and Air's "All I Need" represented October, Retrofitting would have filled the gap in between. The mood of this album is upbeat, but laced with moments of reflective nostalgia and a subtle tinge of regret. It's that same pang of sadness you feel when twilight creeps in on a Sunday sky, or when a cool Labor Day breeze signals the close of summer.
Retrofitting is the debut full-length of Looper knob-twiddler Scott Twynholm, whose previous solo output had been limited to a 7" released last year. Twynholm's work as Metrovavan infuses the twee-hop styles of Looper's The Geometrid with a darker emotional timbre, shifting emphasis from the group's fluffy lyrics to his instrumental and technical talents. Only two songs on this record feature singing, but Twynholm seems to work best without vocals. The instrumentals on Retrofitting showcase his crisp sampling techniques and his knack for stereo noodling, with the hollow vocals rarely being anything more than a distraction.
The banal, cloying lyrics simply take themselves too seriously to be effective. And the prominence Metrovavan gives to the vocal arrangements on "I'm Glad I'm Not a Spaceman" and "Behind the Last Star" comes at some expense to the instrumental nuance that marks the rest of the album.
The rest of the material on this disc is surprisingly well-crafted-- the melodies are catchy without being cliché, the songs are danceable without being predictable, and the instrumental arrangements reference a variety of genres without falling into any particular one. The album opens on a brilliant note with "Space Shadows," a lush cocktail of acoustic strumming, undulating basslines and washed-out amp feedback. Glitchy flourishes creep in at the song's margins while sharp snare-fed breaks set the tempo.
"French Lessons," a soft down-tempo groove garnished with cymbal splashes and a melange of vocal samples, continues in the chill, wistful vein of the record. All that's missing from this autumnal tune is a brick-hearth fireplace and a mug of hot cider. Elsewhere, Metrovavan plies his hand at a more obtuse sound on "Keep Breathing" and "A Parisian Taxi Ride in November." More dissonant and atonal than the rest of the album, these songs are nonetheless quite engaging, and number among Retrofitting's standouts.
It's not often that an album's hook retains my interest for more than a few listens. The appeal of a quality single typically only lasts long enough to rope the listener into the more complex songs, then becomes transparent and eventually vanishes. The 24-karat sonic splendor of "Because of the Sun" breaks this mold; it's at once the most accessible and the most elaborate song on this disc. What starts out as a linear electro jam evolves into a feel-good dancefloor breakout. The buoyant basslines and funky organ riffs are offset by the distant wail of a plaintive guitar, and the refrains come at you from all angles, touching on every imaginable channel of the stereo spectrum.
A mere ten songs comprise this album-- two of those are filler, and another two are rendered unlistenable by Twynholm's sappy vocals. This album could stand to be longer, and could stand to simply be more. Six strong tracks make for a laudable effort, but Retrofitting just isn't ambitious enough to stand out as a classic. Hopefully, Metrovavan will proffer up a little more substance on his next record and dispose of the frivolous lyrics. But if he doesn't, I'm sure I'll still be happy with Retrofitting; it certainly surpassed my expectations.
