When last we spoke of the darkly lush electronic production duo Telefon Tel Aviv, they had just been signed to Berlin-based Ellen Allien-fronted Bpitch Control Records, the announcement of which is going to go down in history as one of my most-fanboyed-out moments…ever. I believe I may have actually fan-fic’d a conversation between Josh, Charlie and Ellen Allien. In the resulting hours/days/weeks, I’ve had a copy of their forthcoming 2009 LP Immolate Yourself on a near-constant loop in my headphones. In a fashion akin to their last full-length, Map Of What Is Effortless, Immolate Yourself is epic, aching and beautiful. This time around, though, the boys eschew the spliced r&b/soul of the previous album for more straight-ahead vocal efforts buried deeper in the much headier mix of synthetics and yearning. If Mr. West hadn’t already laid claim, 808s and Heartbreak would’ve been an equally fitting title for this collection of breaking-up-and-breaking-down chronicles, but that would have been both too subtle and not at all dramatic enough for TTA. When I say it’s an addictive album, my working definition of “addictive” only applies for those who’ve ever gotten lost in The Cure’s “Plainsong” as it washes over them, spilling literally and figuratively out of headphones (the only way to listen to that song, to The Cure, or to Telefon Tel Aviv, really, as this band makes albums that are solitary excursions, in no way meant as an experience for sharing, as intimate, personal and self-defined as the act of one’s own heart breaking is). The songs fade into one another, vocals fade in and out of view and the album coheres together into a snapshot of a final wave of “goodbye” on a darkened street corner. This is heavy, beautiful stuff.
I exchanged emails with Telefon Tel Aviv’s Josh Eustis about the new album, and the resulting half-conversation half-interview is below:
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ResonatorMag: It’s been a while since “Map Of What Is Effortless”. In brief…what have you guys, collectively and individually, been up to? I know there was a remix collection, and some production work…?
Josh: This is a bit of a long, sad story, but basically, after the touring for “Map” was through, we were also quite through with the band in general. There were no plans to make any more music. Our friendship was strained as a result of the band, and we value the friendship over the band in spades, so we decided to take a break in order that we wouldn’t strangle each other.I moved back to New Orleans in early ‘04 to get away from the cold of Chicago - broke, rock bottom. I had sold off most of my gear to make that record. I went home to live with my parents in New Orleans and get my life back together and work on music. I set up a little studio in my old bedroom and just started writing. i sent stuff to charlie but he wasn’t so into it, and in the end i think it was for the best.
Then Katrina hit in ‘05, and I had to get moving. I was in LA engineering the Black Light Burns record with Danny Lohner, and that took seven months. Afterward, I went to Iceland with Jimmy LaValle to get involved in the mix on his record “Into the Blue Again”, which we mixed at Sundlaugin Studios (Sigur Ros’s studio… amazing!)in Iceland with Biggi Birgisson. Then in Spring of ‘06, I moved back to Chicago and Charlie and I got a place, set up our studio and there you have it. I worked on records by The Race, Costa Music, The Depreciation Guild, Apparat, Milosh, Dark Party, etc. while we were in the process of writing “Immolate Yourself”. I also do a thing called Sons of Magdalene which is really self-indulgent tape music, essentially. Charlie had also done some remixes - one for Carmen Rizzo called “Too Rude” which had Esthero singing on it… a total burner. He also has another project in the works that is sort of Minneapolis-influenced dance stuff which is totally amazing and original but I believe he has a Freudian fear of success, so he won’t play it for anyone but our group of friends. Needless to say, it’s totally mind-blowing and we all think he’s silly for not getting it put out, ASAP.
ResonatorMag:On the last album, you were both in fairly dark places-thus, the resulting album’s sound. Immolate Yourself seems, emotionally, more…hopeful? If and TTA album can *ever* be called hopeful? Are either/both of you in better places, emotionally, with these songs?Josh: I think we might even be worse off than the last record - I mean - Immolate Yourself might SOUND a bit more hopeful, but I assure you in earnest that it is NOT. We wanted to dress up our very depressing and suicidal lyrics with quicker tempos and a vaguely upbeat vibe, but it should still be a bummer at the end of the day. I don’t want to complain and say “oh, my life is so dark, uuuhhhh, I can’t handle it anymore” - everyone is having a tough time right now. But there are personal things going on in our daily lives that are nearly catastrophic. We try to turn those things around into inspiration. I think if our lives were going perfectly, our music would be really lame.
ResonatorMag: One of the first and most immediate noticeable differences between Immolate Yourself and past TTA work is the re-focus from serious half-second micro-processing of the drums to more lavish, lush soundscape work everywhere else. What brought that new frame of focus? Also, some of the drums sound live on this-are they?
Josh: Well, I think that the move to more long-form sonic textures was a pretty conscious decision. We tried to do some of that micro-stuff on this record, just noodling around, but it sounded really silly to us. We are also lazy. There are so many musicians doing that sort of thing now, and software that will actually do it for you, that it lost its charm to us. It doesn’t sound new or exciting really at all anymore. Kids with Ableton and laptops are shredding their beats to shit. Autechre will always be 17 steps ahead of everyone else as far as expanding what can be done with electronic music moving forward, so any other attempt to show chops or shred or do something really wild is just vanity at this point, the way I see it. So while texture will always be very important to us, we feel that we have to try things that are new to us, explore territory that we haven’t before - hence the tape loops, all the crusty analog synths, mixing down to 1/4″, long, evolving textures, and a focus that leans primarily to the actual songwriting and NOT the production.
ResonatorMag:Bpitch Control is, without a doubt, my favorite label of the past few years-how did the signing happen? Are there any plans for you guys to collaborate with Ellen?
Josh: I have my suspicions as to how we got their attention - I think Sascha Ring (Apparat) had a lot to do with it, although he will deny it. We’ve toured with him and worked with him on tons of music - remixes, albums, etc. Ellen said to me that she knew our previous records very well, so I’m assuming that Sascha probably said at some point “hey, Ellen, you know, maybe you should try to work with these guys” - so when we met Ellen in person, finally, which was a few years ago, the very first things she said to me were “Hello, nice to meet you!” and “You should put your next record out on BPitch Control”. I love that Germans are so to-the-point. No bullshit with these people at all. We should all follow their example, it helps friendships. Needless to say, Charlie and I kind of looked at each other with looks of excited disbelief. We are huge fans, to say the least. It’s very exciting for us.
ResonatorMag:What are you listening to lately?
Josh: Grouper, “Dragging a Dead Deer up a Hill”. Record of the year, hands down. I’m also very into the new LP by The Notwist, and also a record coming out on Ghostly International by The Sight Below called “Glider”. It’s also probably obvious that I have been literally living inside the Gas “Nah und Fern” box set. Everything that Wolfgang Voigt does is fucking ace, pure and simple.
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Telefon Tel Aviv: You Are The Worst Thing In The World
TTA have a ridiculous release schedule, always putting out winter albums due for release at the start of the year out as promos right at the beginning of the prior year’s fall. As such, Immolate Yourself is by far one of my favorite albums of 2008, though it’s not released on BPC until January of 2009. It’s going to make both my 08 and 09 lists, though, I can guarentee that, and this song is a big part of why that is. “You Are The Worst Thing In The World” is the perfect, epic, pop heartbreak song, washing above and under and over and through with those gorgeous vocals and the drums that, if they HAD been processed within an inch of their lives like on previous TTA records would sound stale and forced but here, given room to breathe, they’re as night-kissed and addictive as the unnamed female protagonist herself. This song is the focal point of a completely brilliant, painful, beautiful record.
Telefon Tel Aviv: Helen Of Troy
When I first listened to this song, the first single to chip off of the complex entirety that is Immolate Yourself, I only noticed how less clear and how much more shoegazing the vocals were on it than on the previous TTA record. Now, having lived with this song for much longer and having experienced it within the album’s context, as its mid-point, I’ve come to notice other things about this song. First: it’s a single, pure and simple. Second: it’s a complex piece of electronic Americana, complete with the two classic themes of said latter genre: cars and girls. As soon as the song starts and the percussion kicks in, “Helen Of Troy” is a different side of Springsteen’s “Thunder Road”, only here, as the song’s epic end chimes in, the car goes over the bridge and under the water. An exercise in futility, sure, but then again isn’t that either the start or the end of all heartbreak?
Immolate Yourself is out in January on Bpitch Control records. Not hearing this album in its entirety would be doing it, and yourself, a grave disservice.
