Media Music

With a duration of 45 minutes, Media Music EP is hardly an EP, but then again Helgoland is not your average electro-pop group. For this quartet, three-quarters of an hour suffice to run through 30 tunes, some only a few seconds long, a couple only over three minutes. So, in fact, this CD is the band's second full-length release. Shortness, quirkiness, and unexpectedness must be Helgoland's motto. With only a drummer, a keyboardist, a bassist, and a reedist, they create fast-paced new wave-tinged instrumental ditties that run the gamut of musical styles, from jazzy lounge to speed metal, but all re-thought in terms of avant-garde pop and low-tech electronics. Guests on this effort include Isaac Margono and Reznicek. The latter's presence is more than suitable, as his Nova Huta project shares a similar philosophy. This Media Music EP, cleverly packaged as a blank CD-R (the cover picture is handwriting over a standard Fujifilm-brand CD-R card) is destabilizing and full of surprises. The listener barely has the time to get acquainted with a tune before a new one comes in, often from a very different direction. This music lies somewhere between the anti-pop pastiches of the Residents on Third Reich 'n' Roll and Commercial Album, and the compact energy of the Stick Men. Don't be fooled by "Much Too Much." This rather straightforward rock song (the only track with vocals) is this CD's "eye of the storm." Good, inventive non-serious experimental pop. Recommended. ~ François Couture, Rovi