Organicity in popular music has been greatly complicated by the advent of electronica. The fact that pop and rock are principally derived from the organic unity of several instruments combining to create a singular sound is rendered moot by the reality that electronic music begins with organic unity as an immediate instance of synchronicity. So one could posit the viewpoint that the attempt to create organic unity in electronic music is pointless.
Of course, electronic music has caused something of a viral infection in pop music. Whereas before it was content to keep pace with digital media and exercise developmental innovation in the processing of sound, the genre has now begun to appropriate the intent of pop. The role of guitar as an organic cog-in-the-wheel has died, and pop music has since begun to resemble a cyborg.
DAT Politics is a laptop quartet from Lille, France. An offshoot of the much whispered about French post-rock group Tone Rec (of which three of these four guys are members), Villiger is their second album of sharp, densely arranged electronic product. It's an amazing picture of where electronica and pop music meet, a jaw-droppingly consistent instance of glitchy electronics and massively processed tones wedded to a more traditional musical heritage.
The band applies a more populist approach to the groundbreaking static orchestrations exemplified by Mego artists like Fennesz and Pita without diluting the sonic edge of the work. The four members interact and bounce ideas off one another relentlessly, using shards of overheated electronics to sculpt a profoundly melodic musical interplay.
The tracks range from miniature exercises in digital sound processing to full-blown beat-driven electro-pop songs, each track blazing its own stylistic trail as it develops. On one track, they manage to evoke a horn section tripping over a distinct melodic theme. The song's subsequent breakdown even seems to approximate something like what George Martin might produce if locked up in the BBC Radiophonic Workshop.
Villiger is the heavy-handedness of experimental music skillfully tempered by a refreshingly engaging approach. DAT Politics provide a vibrant fusion of electronic music with a pop sensibility without sacrificing the edge of its musical process. That their work is the product of an organic group dynamic lends this album its immediacy and verve. Two members of Tone Rec have recently abandoned guitar and bass for notebook computers. As it should be.
