Midwest Product World Series Of Love
Ghostly International continues a winning streak with this seven-track sophomore release from Ann Arbor, MI […]
Ghostly International continues a winning streak with this seven-track sophomore release from Ann Arbor, MI trio Midwest Product. Comparatively, Midwest Product’s 2002 debut, Specifics was, well, unspecific. It dealt with unfolding and inverting rhythms, whereas World Series of Love is constrained to the sensibilities of pop convention-rhythms are more reeled in, less regurgitating. Midwest Product’s taut jams traffic in melody, filling in the empty grave of harrowing, hollow percussion left by Ian Curtis’s demise. The omnipresent elasticity of steadily plucked single-string basslines leads listeners through the boiling kettle-crescendo sizzle and twitter of guitar and synth arpeggios. The only weak spot on WSOL is the Kraftwerkian post-Trans Am/Knodel automaton that is ‘Bank.” Otherwise, the album is a collection of airy electronics that culminates in dusky gems with murky names like “Dead Cat,” “Swamp,” “Duckpond” and “Motivator.”