Broadcast!

Hey, guys. Today I’m here to talk about a band I really love: 90’s/early 2000’s psych-electronica duo Broadcast. 

Warp.net

Broadcast consisted of multi-instrumentalists Trish Keenan and James Cargill. They formed in 1995 and remained active until Keenan’s tragic death in 2011. The music these two made together is beautiful and uncertain. I’m not a good enough writer to really describe it. Their strange brand of synth-pop is sort of haunting and uncanny, but also comforting and warm. Do you remember those old science VHS tapes that elementary teachers used to play, when they wheeled in the massive television and turned the lights out? A little fuzzy and strange and outdated, but they made you feel happy? That’s kind of what Broadcast’s music feels like. 

Of all their albums, 1997’s Work and Non-Work feels least likely to have been made on this planet. Not from any real outer space, though; I think that this album was transmitted from some fake galaxy in an old 1960’s cartoon. “Message from Home” is a perfect example of their lovely, whimsical and distorted sound. In classic Broadcast style, Keenan’s lyrics repeat over and over again while the music shifts subtly beneath them. The real strange part of this song, though, is the end, where the musical motif fades back in with a new, heavenly arrangement of otherworldly synth and choir vocals. “Accidentals”, the band’s debut single, feels like taking an elevator alone from somewhere important to somewhere you’ve never been before. “The Book Lovers” is another gorgeous, bizarre highlight. 

The Noise Made by People (2000) and Haha Sound (2003) are both wonderful extensions of the sound Broadcast established with their debut, leaning each time a little further into psychedelia. Sounds come from everywhere; found, synthesized, recycled, acoustic, electronic; and none of them feel distinct from one another. “Before we Begin”, “Man is Not a Bird”, and “Come on, Let’s Go” are some of Broadcast’s best songs, I think.

Maybe my favorite album of theirs though, is 2000’s Tender Buttons. It’s a little graver than their other things, but not without the band’s trademark feeling of wonder. “I Found the F” has some of Trish Keenan’s most serious, unabashedly beautiful lyrics and a semi-gothic synth and drum instrumental. “America’s Boy” is one of their catchiest, most direct tracks. The instrumentals all over this album are unusually skeletal; “Tears in the Typing Pool” consists entirely of a guitar and a weird, rickety organ. Tender Buttons is notably weightier than anything else the band put out. The nostalgia is still there, but as you’re wandering around nice old memories you start to run into some that aren’t so sweet. 

There’s not much more I can say, but I hope this has been enough to get you to give Broadcast a listen. I’m very thankful to have their music in my life. And if you’re already a fan, then I’m glad you’re out there.