Considering the recent tragedy in New Orleans, it comes as little surprise that Louisiana transplants Home Video would release a record painted in lingering melancholy. Blurring the lines between electronic and rock music is certainly nothing new but too often the success of this combination is measured by the inability to separate its increasingly disparate parts. But Home Video’s Collin Ruffino and David Gross seem to get it right on their second effort since leaving Warp, the first for Brooklyn’s Defend Music— keep it simple stupid. No struggle to discern the various song components here. Like The Mobius Band, Midwest Product or Cassettes Won’t Listen, synthesizers and guitars play nice with drums and programmed percussion, each occupying its own little corner of sound. Some might lazily cop-out with a quick Radiohead 2.0 comparison (and yes it’s certainly there), but given the context and recent history, it’s more haunting and ultimately satisfying to think of Home Video as the stillborn ghost baby of a fictional late-night tryst between Portishead and Joy Division.
RIYL: Radiohead, The Mobius Band, Cassettes Won’t Listen, Midwest Product
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