Pictureplane: Thee Physical

By Michael Lopez Wed., Jul. 20 2011 at 9:00 AM

Categories: Review Roundup

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Pictureplane - Thee Physical

It's hard not to imagine yourself smack dab in the middle of 1994 when listening to Thee Physical -- the latest effort from Travis Egedy's Pictureplane project. First, the magic eye album art grabs your attention, only to have said attention skewed towards Egedy's diva-house, Euro-beat songs. There is an honest feeling, at least on the song "Touching Transform," that Egedy lifted the track's beat from some obscure Orbital B-side.

However, therein lies the skillful, electronic music sensibilities of Travis Egedy -- his music effortlessly whisks listeners away to a bygone era of day-glo, grown men sucking on pacifiers, and an all-night-long rave in a dingy warehouse. Not too bad for the man who coined the term "witch house," even though his music -- unlike the aforementioned genre -- have song titles in plain ol', legible English.

What the critics are saying:

Redefine Mag: Pictureplane's punk rock-like approach to the production and dissemination of his work is democratizing electronic music the same way the Ramones, Minor Threat, and Black Flag liberated rock music in the 70s and 80s.

Bowlegs Music: Egedy's trick of introducing his subtle, Green Gartside vocals into every song makes Pictureplane's music distinct from the sources he plunders, but he always allows the retro rhythms and chord stabs to carry the tunes.

Tiny Mix Tapes: Little of this speaks directly to the musical merits of Thee Physical -- which include, but are not limited to its blood-and-fist-pumping anthemic qualities; the rousing bright, broadness of Pictureplane's synthwave pop.

Pitchfork: Thee Physical wants to mosh in the punk club as much as it wants to throw on some lip gloss and hit the town, and it's frustratingly enticing to imagine how the record would have turned out if Egedy had leaned on the gas towards the latter option.

Thee Phyical is out now via Lovepump United.

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