REVIEW -- TELEPATHE: DANCE MOTHER

Telepathe

Dance Mother

(IAMSOUND)

The debut album by these two N.Y.C. girls sounds a lot like TV on the Radio. That’s not much of a surprise, seeing that TVOTR’s Dave Sitek produced it. There’s plenty of electronic buzzing and whirring going on in the background of these nine songs, always distracting from the action happening up front. Good thing, since Telepathe’s Melissa Livaudais and Busy Gangnes really can’t sing, and there ain’t a whole lot else keeping the record together. At least Sitek builds Dance Mother on layers and layers of his trademark noise textures, constructing glorious aural architecture out of the surroundings. A couple songs – “Chrome’s On It” and “Can’t Stand It” -- manage to wrestle part of the spotlight away from Sitek’s machines, but it’s obvious who the real star is here. -- Michael Gallucci