polaroids of androids

May 17, 2008

TheDeathSet
Worldwide

5.2

Of the eighteen tracks on the long-awaiting debut record from the Gold Coast turned Baltimore electronic spazzers, five clock in under a minute. The majority of the rest last less than two and the whole album is over and done after a frantic 25 minutes of chaos.

The album collects a fair chunk of it's material from previously released EP's from the group who, for sometime have been regularly spurting out singles and short discs, in between wowing audiences with their highly commended live show. The music TheDeathSet create lends itself to be performed live, with the high energy chaos not really suiting the home stereo as well as it would a sweaty club.

The fast-paced nature of Worldwide, combined with a 'less is more' approach, is hit-and-miss. On tracks like the previously released Intermission as well as Moving Forward, the angst-driven punk vocals perfectly compliment the energetic backing, whether it be based on stripped-back keyboards or fuelled by raw guitars sounds. Conversely, songs like Peak Oil and Impossible sound like nothing more than a lazy looped keyboard beat, attacked by painfully annoying screeching yelps.

Instrumental numbers Spaz, Bla! and This Song help connect together the jolts of energy with slightly richer pieces of music. They help stop the album sounding like an endless series of half-starts and short sprints, but they fail to add much weight.

For the majority of this album the group end up sounding a lot like Architecture In Helsinki on speed. Much like the aforementioned, the group choose energy over substance and it's fun while it lasts, but ultimately there isn't enough here to keep the listener hooked. Chances are most people will make it to the end of the album, especially given the short running time, but it's highly doubtful they will revisit this album on a regular basis.

Words by Jonny