You drag your weary legs out to the street, the humid night hardly a respite from the stale atmosphere just escaped. Holding yourself stable, you hail a cab and stumble in, the air-conditioning cranked surprisingly high. The driver hears your mumbled directions and seems to understand exactly where you intend to go. As you drift in and out of consciousness, you hear snatches of vocal chatter and rain gently falling on glass and watch as gaudy, flickering signs blur into one another. Drawn In Basic is the soundtrack to such a night.
Populous (née Italian producer Andrea Mangia) crafts distinctly metropolitan soundscapes on this record. For “Only Hope,” he layers an inebriated synth melody and thick sawtooth waves over a straight 4/4 club beat. “Faithful” features a loping bass drum with soft, shuffling snare beneath airy synth pads and shimmering leads. Every few tracks, Mangia provides an instrumental without Short Stories on vocals, and the results are some of the album's most enjoyable and adventurous. Although the music is almost entirely synthesizer-driven (there are sporadic bits of guitar and electric piano), a good variety of texture is present, keeping Drawn In Basic from becoming musically stagnant.
Michael McGuire's (New York-based MC Short Stories') voice will likely be the biggest point of contention for listeners. It has a nasally, boyish quality that sounds not unlike an amalgam of Adam “Doseone” Drucker, Morr labelmate Ben Cooper, and The American Analog Set’s Andrew Kenny. His barely-louder-than-a-whisper, childlike melodies belie rather grave subject matter: “Only Hope” finds him pondering morality and mortality; “Holy See” opens with a rumination on lost faith; and “Heaven Knows” seems to address an impending apocalypse. Still, glints of optimism are seen throughout -- “Man Overboard,” for example, contains the resilient refrain of “I’m not givin’ up.” But the lyrical content here is really the least memorable element of Drawn In Basic; McGuire’s musings ultimately serve as vessels for his catchy vocal hooks and multi-tracked harmonies.
The most frustrating aspect is the length of the songs, with most of the tracks barely reaching past the two-minute mark. The ephemeral nature adds to the already somnolent feel, as these short songs bleed into each other. Some feel appropriately short, like glimpses into fleeting dreams; others, however, feel inchoate. Some of Mangia’s instrumental interludes could have benefited from expansion. Still, Drawn In Basic is an enjoyable electronic pop record, one well-suited to late, sleepless nights. With echoes of a distant club resounding in its subdued beats and hushed vocals, this is a dreamy record of lullabies for the dance-floor set.
More about: Populous With Short Stories
