RIYL: Dissociatives, Air, E.L.O.

It’s good to see that there is someone at the major league level who remembers the importance of having a label with a personality, and that someone is Chop Shop Records’ Alexandra Patsavas. If Patsavas has your back, odds are you are a contemporary pop act with an offbeat approach and throwback sensibilities, i.e. you write songs like they were written before Rob Thomas fucked everything up, and this describes Patsavas’ latest signing, Mackintosh Braun, to a ‘T.’ The Portland duo’s debut album Where We Are is blissful synth pop song after blissful synth pop song, filled with breathy, manipulated vocals and washes of sound that envelop the listener like a wave from the oceans of Xanadu. The band could definitely use a second operating speed, but when they’re on, like the fab opening track “Could It Be” and the ringing “Line in the Sand,” it’s damn near irresistible. Most of the album, though, falls into the pleasant-but-slight category, and the robotic vocals leave the proceedings a little cold, but you can tell from the chord sequences that Mackintosh Braun have the right idea. With any luck, they’ll come up with more of those right ideas next time around. (Chop Shop/Atlantic 2010)

Download Mackintosh Braun’s “Could It Be” here

Mackintosh Braun MySpace page
Click to buy Where We Are from Amazon