Future Crayon [CD]

I have to admit that I've never been wild about the B-sides from Broadcast -- as much as I adore "Haha Sound" and "The Noise Made By People," but their early doodlings in "Work and Non-Work" just never grabbed me.

Fortunately their later B-sides, UK EPs, rarities and discards are far superior, as displayed in "Future Crayon." While not perfect -- some songs just never gel together as music -- some of the songs on here are perfect gems, and others are just chilly trippy music.

It open with the steady, solid "Illumination," where a steady bassline is wrapped up in airy synth, while Trish Keenan's clear voice croons a hard-to-decipher song. The music gets even harder in the second song, which is a droning ballad that sounds like a robot love song.

From there on, the spattering of B-sides and rarities takes all sorts of directions -- they do twinkly yet ominous pop melodies, meditative noodling, abrasive little sci-fi jazz numbers that never really form into songs, Middle-Eastern trip-hop, buzzy folk, angular electronica, and airy ambient numbers that drift off while you listen to them.

It's hard to really describe the sound of Broadcast, while avoiding words like "retro." In fact, it doesn't really sound like a retro band, but like a bunch of ghosts and meditative robots who have formed a sixties cover band, and are playing on a wintry morning. Yep, that's how it really sounds at times.

And the surprising thing about "Futuristic Crayon" is that many of the songs do seem to fit together, even though they were not made as an album -- the buzzy synth and ambiguous melodies tie together from song to song, so that if you didn't know better, you might think they had all been made together. Even in the folkier numbers like "Unchanging Window/Chord Simple," they put in some fuzz bass and touches of electronica.

There are a few duds, however -- "One Hour Empire" is basically one long drum solo with some flourishes thrown in, and it never actually becomes something listenable. And some of the songs just need tightening up, since they have bits that just waffle around aimlessly.

Trish Keenan's voice is one of Broadcast's most important assets -- her voice is clear, cool and thoughtful. James Cargill's music serves as the perfect backdrop for her singing and the cool, intelligent lyrics. "Some words cannot be bound/no anchor can be found/this land which used/will be too confused/and when they shake your hand/the ground will break away..."

If those few dud tracks had been excised, "Future Crayon" could have been the rare B-sides album that is mistaken for a full-length release. Like a flawed but still beautiful crystal.

Broadcast have without doubt been the best British pop band for the last decade ("best group since The Smiths" etc etc) but Trish & co have never been too prolific - 4 albums only - so this round up of "extended play" singles and odds & ends is welcome. Stereolab, Tortoise & Yo La Tengo have all done this recently in the form of 3 or 4 cd box sets, so there will be disappointment that we only get a single disc here, especially since there are quite a few tracks missing (eg remixes & radio sessions) not to mention no unreleased material from all those "shelved" albums. And if any group could justify putting out live & DVD material it would be Broadcast.

Nevertheless Future Crayon presents a substantial "leftfield" overview of the range of Broadcast's music, with more of an experimental edge than the regular albums - cinematic themes, Krautrock work outs and lots of instrumentals, spiky glitchy electronica & percussion. For example the brilliant Hammer Without Master is a quintessential Broadcast soundscape but set to an almost trance techno style drone/pulse. It's also worth saying that there are no duplications with the other albums and even hardcore fans might not have tracks 8 to 13 as these come from obscure/deleted Warp releases.

Broadcast are probably not as widely known as they deserve to be on the strength of their records - drifting in a cult domain somewhere beneath Stereolab and Tortoise, and alongside the similarly ignored Pram. I guess it's a Birmingham thing?

The albums have been fine thus far, though certainly not as frequent as one would hope - you get the idea the members of the band have other lives as social workers, electronic engineers, or film archivists or something. Like Tortoise, they have found an apt home on Warp, the home of electronica for artists like The Aphex Twin, Autechre, and Boards of Canada. The material collected here has been spread around and about, the `Extended Play Two' e.p. was the first thing I picked up by them and I thought it was fantastic, sounding like a blend of Soviet News TV broadcasts and Stereolab (with whom Broadcast originally put records out with on the `Lab's label).

`The Future Crayon' is an ideal primer in a band who deserves a bit more attention; I guess if they were American they would have got it? The sleeve lets you know the origin of the 18 tracks, presented in non-linear order from their sources - the quality shows that a standard was met, the tracks drifting from 1998's `Hammer Without a Master', which is certainly a record Damon Albarn has heard, to 2003's `Pendulum' e.p. (which featured the gorgeous `Still Feels Like Tears', `Small Song IV', `One Hour Empire', `Minus Two', and `Violent Playground'). The releases `The Future Crayon' stems from are respectively: `We Are Reasonable People', `Echo's Answer', `Come on Let's Go', `Extended Play', `Extended Play Two', the `All Tomorrows Parties 01' collection, & the `Pendulum' e.p.

The music is certainly not far from The Free Design-Pram-Stereolab-Tortoise realm, though with a soundtrack vibe that sometimes recalls Barry Adamson/Damon Albarn and elements that would appeal to fans of Four Tet. It's all pretty wonderful stuff, demonstrating that many acts produce great material in the single, e.p. and out-take realm. My favourite songs that I would advise to download or sample if unprepared to take the risk and add to the basket include `Still Feel Like Tears', `Test Area', `One Hour Empire', the hypnotic `Poem of Dead Song', `Hammer Without Master', and the epic `Unchanging Window/Chord Simple' - which opens with a Soviet TV style jingle before drifting into a blend of Krautrock and Stereolab (...sometimes the same thing, I know...). In all, `The Future Crayon' is a hugely enjoyable c.d. for both fans and the uninitiated alike - certainly one of the compilations of 2006 and a companion for Tortoise's recent box-set and the compilation of Four Tet. Recommended then...