The Future Crayon

The Future Crayon is a compilation of Broadcast’s singles and b-sides

After 10 years of existence British band Broadcast in addition to their long play albums has managed to release a whole lot of singles and to participate in different compilations. Mainly these separate tracks were recorded in the band’s early years and somehow they served as a footing for the future albums. When Broadcast first began releasing singles in the mid 1990s, they were often compared with Stereolab, even though the band’s seemed to draw its primary influence from the semi-obscure 1960s band The United States of America, whose Garden of Earthly Delights sets the standard for spooky, weird psychedelia. Partly, due to this combination the musicians were able to find their sonic uniqueness employing synthesizers in creative ways in a pop-inspired context. The last album of the band The Future Crayon, which was released on 21 August of the current year, is a set of b-sides and rarities covering Broadcast’s output prior to 2003’s Haha Sound.

Broadcast has kept their creative backbone

On the moment of their forth album release Broadcast has shorten to a duet though the band primarily comprised of five persons. Today’s Broadcast is represented by James Cargill and vocalist Trish Keenan, the backbone, whose creative labor created obscure, alienated atmosphere characteristic for the band’s electronic experiments. Trish Keenan’s emotionally inscrutable, ghostly vocals enshrouded in swinging beat and meticulously arranged analog synth, string and drum samples provide a special mood blend of blithe and ominous. Roughly half the material is from The Noise Made By People period but there are even earlier tracks such as Hammer Without A Master from a 1998’s Warp compilation and Test Area from a 1999’s single. It’s the sound of a young band filling wax, however trying to find their way. The most interesting material here is taken from the Pendulum EP, which preceded Haha Sound in 2003. These are more mature and distinctive tracks that have the brand Broadcast mixture of beat and cosmic.

The Future Crayon has the most characteristic Broadcast features

The Future Crayon, like Tender Buttons, is a little predictable at first but grows more complex after several listenings. Relying on characteristic details like electronic big-band bursts, Keenan's precise British enunciation and emotive guitar layered under synthed-out instrumentals, Broadcast makes very intimate sonic intricacy. It is hardly worth calling The Future Crayon to be the new Broadcast album but for those who appreciate their works it might become one of the best. Sometimes raw it reflects the band’s originality in the best possible way. Meaty and encompassing, The Future Crayon rarely misses. Broadcast, inspired with the past psychedelic experiments, has managed to make electronica for those whose tastes usually reached no further into the future than 70s.