Chandeliers

Electronic art-funk band Chandeliers, residents of Chicago's Shape Shoppe loft/recording studio, present their debut LP, The Thrush, on the newly formed Obey Your Brain imprint (run by members of Man Man and Icy Demons). Comprised of multi-instumentalists from Chicago's blossoming young avant-rock scene, Chandeliers are a phenomenon in unclassifiable modern music. 
 
The five-piece, who debut in 2004 at the University of Chicago, arrived just as a new scene and sound was beginning to form in the city. They had previously rehearsed for a few months as complete free spirits, using mostly vintage synths and live drums, and for the next two years crafted their approach and technique, developing an electronic sound melded to a traditional rock set-up. Chandeliers were one of several local bands that incorporated mainly electronic instruments but no laptops, and performed as a group of musicians, not a novelty act. Having adopted the collective spirit of kraut-rock bands like Can and Faust, the group functions as a unified whole with no dominant members. This approach gives them a more intuitive and unpredictable approach to composing. 
 
The band befriended Blue Hawaii (a.k.a. Griffin Rodriguez), the engineer at the Shape Shoppe, who had recently worked with Beirut and Man Man. After recording a few songs there, Chandeliers moved into the space to rehearse and begin working on new material. Around the same time they met Mahjongg's engineer, Benjamin Balcom, at Elephant, his new studio, and began recording their debut record.  
 
An album with the flow of a mix-tape, The Thrush is at home bangin' in your trunk or hypnotizing on your headphones. Kraftwerk is a clear reference, but with influences ranging from Eastern melodies to the sonically dirty rhythmic propulsion of Konono No.1, and the crunked-out, psychedelic hip-hop of J-Dilla, Chandeliers always keep listeners on their toes. 
 
"The Thrush is so thumpingly immediate, you would never guess at any kind of committee decision making. The opening 20 seconds of "Mr Electric" flick between Ed Banger directness and a Kraftwerk-like neon lyricism. The remix of "Body Double" closes the album in a furious hustle of Afrobeat drumming and rich Italo disco keyboards. In between, the synths mesh into arpeggios that seem as influenced by the post-punk end of the disco spectrum as Giorgio Moroder." 
--The Wire