Mixel Pixel preview

Mixel Pixel
Empty Bottle, Chicago
Monday, November 13, 2006

Randy, hyper-visual electropop quartet Mixel Pixel suck bong hits out of hollowed keyboards in a reverse trajectory on this pre-rave, post-apocalyptic mindset.

Mixing amateurish construction with swimming synth modality does little to slow down this retroforward collective, as Music For Plants grows unwieldy and weedy. Grabbing at everything from Joy Division (“I Cannot Die”), The Jesus & Mary Chain (“Abandon Ship”), Public Image Ltd. (“Black Van”), and haunted by David Bowie and Iggy Pop throughout, MP don’t so much offer an album as squeeze the junk from the track lines in their arms. “Turkish Delights” passes in a narcotic vision, mixing the droll rap of Blondie’s “The Rapture” and a tragic G-funk ride with a lot of gin and way too much juice. Nearly lost in all this are the album’s first three songs, which would qualify as classic singles in a burnt out, LCD-meets-TVOTR wasteland.

The Modern Temper and Relay open.

— Steve Forstneger

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Category: Stage Buzz, Weekly