The Malpractice

Tectonics

Written by: TL on 16/01/2011 19:23:33

It's almost too easy to listen to "Tectonics", the debut LP The Malpractice, and label the band as 'typically Danish electro-rock', given how the album displays the band, as one occupied with ideas similar to what we hear from big Danish names like Veto and Spleen United. Kashmir can even join the imaginary get-together via the bright vocals employed here, but if I widen my gaze just a little, The Malpractice doesn't actually seem so alien as to not attract foreign listeners as well, seeing as they also have moments that compare to bands like Animal Collective, The New Loud and innerpartysystem.

The overall soundscape of "Tectonics" is rather dark and yet also quite playful, as The Malpractice experiment with a plethora of sounds and effects. Electronics are dominant, but remain constantly grounded by your garden variety rock instruments, and the dynamics between the 'synthetic' and 'organic' sounds is actually quite cool. The vocals I already mentioned are mostly kept very high and very light, and seem unusually bent on sharing the listeners attention equally with the instruments. Now this might sound like common sense, but what I mean is that where normally vocals are in the lead, providing the hooks that draw the listener into the sound, the singing here doesn't really engage the listener quite as much, seeming very indie in how they seem to be adressing noone.

All together, The Malpractice do seem like they've been more interested in experimenting with their sound on "Tectonics", rather than fine-tuning it, which is only natural for a new band. It means though, that the tracks often aren't quite tight enough to win over the listener entirely, and mostly I feel like it's the type of record to which you zone in and out, noticing a cool detail here and there, while having trouble keeping an eye (ear) on the big picture. The exceptions come in the poppy and instantly recognizable "Boss Stallion", in the Franz Ferdinand-ish "Oh, The Irony" and in the great dynamics of "It's All About Love", which brilliantly mixes the bright and the dark as well as the subtle and the noisy. On the strength of these tracks, an on a cool, well-produced sound overall, The Malpractice overcome their initial inconsistency and ride up to the threshold of the grades that band's shouldn't feel too bad about getting:

7

Download: Boss Stallion; It's All About Love; Oh, The Irony; Agitator
For The Fans Of: Spleen United, Veto, The New Loud, Animal Collective, Kashmir
Listen: myspace.com/themalpracticedk

Release Date 25.10.2010
Crunchy Frog

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