The hands-across-the-void cover art that accompanies the proper sophomore effort from blasted-electro producer and Denver scene magnate Travis Egedy's Pictureplane project, Thee Physical, brings to mind a few things: fictional Spinal Tap album Smell the Glove, the "kid who found the severed hand" statue in "Arrested Development", and Magic Eye artwork with all the eye-straining already in place. In reality, the image ties into the album's loose themes of human touch and technological eroticism. This dorm-room theorizing also shows up in selected song titles: "Trancegender", "Post Physical", "Body Mod".
Listeners who approach Thee Physical probably aren't showing up for Egedy's flimsy personal-political philosophizing, though. They're here for his frayed, ear-bleeding take on 1990s diva-house and electro-- disembodied leather hands be damned. Pictureplane's 2009 label debut, Dark Rift, was a statement of purpose, packed with both thrilling moments ("Goth Star") and drifting provocation (nine-minute closer "True Ruin"). On Thee Physical, the approach is considerably more refined, with HEALTH's Jupiter Keyes helping lend a new, immediate sonic appeal. Keyes knows a thing or two about tempering industrial-tinged aggression with sugared sensuality (see last year's HEALTH single "USA Girls"), and on Thee Physical that balance is more present than it's ever been in his main gig.
Further contributing to the album's accessibility is Egedy's move from staticky speaker-pounders toward honest-to-god pop songs. Early album offerings "Real Is a Feeling" and "Post Physical" ably showcase his steps toward electro approachability; other songs feature Egedy engaging as an in-the-flesh sideman to the snippets of throaty vocal samples strewn throughout. This man-machine relationship was prominent on Dark Rift, too; Thee Physical does it better. What's more, Egedy's inherently thin voice sounds stronger in its surroundings here.
And yet, for all the improvements, there are times when Egedy's handmade beats seem slightly out of rhythm with everything else that's going on around them (an issue that's especially apparent on "Black Nails"). And when the album's most vibrant hook shows up, on "Trancegender", it's quickly buried in favor of the murky atmospherics that jam up the album's second half. Thee Physical wants to mosh in the punk club as much as it wants to throw on some lip gloss and hit the town, and it's frustratingly enticing to imagine how the record would have turned out if Egedy had leaned on the gas towards the latter option.
