All City Affairs - Identity Theft [Digital]

Lujo

October 23, 2008, 08:28 PM

Views: 365   Comments: 0

Identity Theft, the third album from All City Affairs, is … odd. Or rather, it’s different. At the same time, it’s not. A suitable metaphor fails to present itself, and this could be a problem considering the style of Peter Andreadis, for whom All City Affairs serves as an alias.

Mixed influences present themselves while listening to this album. Some of the bleeps and vocal experimentation hint at Thom Yorke as a creative model; some of the tunes suggest a Beck-esque mentality, but then the distorted synths follow a disco groove underneath Neil Young-inspired vocals, and the best idea seems to be to give up on this reviewing lark and go get drunk.

Maybe that’s just me.

The combination of so many different styles has the bonus, for you lucky chaps and chapesses (chapolas?) who don’t have to describe it, of making the album really interesting. There’s a great deal of richness, even though the arrangement appears to be “sampled drums” and “synths 1 to 49”, with a bit of guitar thrown in, and many of the tunes have a certain, for want of a better phrase, fuzzy edge, which makes for an all-round pleasurable listening experience.

Identity Theft has a fair few deficiencies, however, but somehow Peter Andreadis manages to turn some of them into bonuses. Naff handclaps somehow add to the music, and the singing is weak but pleasant and fitting.

This isn’t always the case – sometimes the synths get a bit much, and you hanker after something a bit less ‘80s. He does play proper instruments – mostly guitar, it seems – but in songs like “So Much Control” and “White People Clapping”, there is far too much synth action. Considering that Andreadis plays drums for Baby Teeth, the Chicagoan disco-rock three-piece, there’s not a lot of natural drums, and the short, percussive beats of, for example, “Little Pills”, a song about Andreadis’ experiences of anxiety medication and depression, grate a little on an otherwise good tune.

The album flags somewhat towards the end, seemingly a little self-indulgent and uninspired. Apparently Sweep (the trumpeting hand-puppet hound of Sooty fame) makes a guest appearance at the end of the final track, “Slide”, and the constantly panning synth that accompanies him is irritating, particularly when wearing headphones.

Overall, though, Identity Theft is a good experience, and one worth checking out, if only to provide some suggestions on how to describe the thing.

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