(2023) Telehealth - Content Oscillator    


Review:
Telehealth, out of the Seattle suburbs, makes retro-futurist new wave songs out of cheesy synths and drum machines, resuscitating the nostalgic sounds of Devo, the Human League and Eddy Grant, while critiquing the cutting-edge technologies of right this minute. Alexander Attitude (possibly a stage name) and Kendra Cox of Lemolo make up Telehealth (you can hear her on “Blinding Hour,” for instance). Content Oscillator is as idiosyncratic as a two-person, end-of-the-world, disco-sci-fi outfit can be, and it’s a non-stop bop all the way through. Why not start where the record does with “Idiot Proof?” Its hammering one-note riff that sounds like a migraine coming on, the walls closing in, the nightmare turning real, but the synths dance around it in giddy joy and the chorus is as bright and twitchy as the Comstat Angels. It is followed by a song called “Hype Tech Green Investment Guy,” all taut, preening, late-1980s sheen, but with pokes at Alexa, tech dudes and private equity bros. (“Not a republican/fiscally conservative/exploit the system/watch it rot/I work hard, I’m not a cop.”) “Taliesin Grid” is likewise, full of bounce and menace. It is possibly relevant here that Attitude trained as an architect—Taliesin is one of Frank Lloyd Wright’s buildings—and concerned with climate change, but not to the degree that it gets in the way. Telehealth has Devo’s way of packaging techno-dread in shiny danceable wrapping. The disc ends with anthemic “Yr Groove,” where the synths bubble over in anxious, end-of-times hedonism. It’s a pneumatic groove, powered by renewables, irresistible and anthemic and devoted to self-actualization even in the direst times. “If things are ending/doesn’t mean I’m free/the world is burning, let me be me,” crows Alexander Attitude, and yes, here’s to the oddballs running wild. — dustedmagazine


   


Track List:
01 - Idiot Proof (nO SoUp Du JoUr)
02 - Hyper Tech Green Investment Guy
03 - Taliesin Grid
04 - Unsafe Feeling
05 - Rendezvous
06 - Do the In Between
07 - Blinding Hour
08 - Context Hindsight
09 - Cool Breeze
10 - No Time Lost
11 - Yr Groove


Media Report:
Genre: art rock, post-punk, synth-pop
Country: Seattle, Washington, USA
Format: FLAC
Format/Info: Free Lossless Audio Codec
Bit rate mode: Variable
Channel(s): 2 channels
Sampling rate: 44.1 KHz
Bit depth: 16 bits
Compression mode: Lossless
Writing library: libFLAC 1.2.1 (UTC 2007-09-17)


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