Touch Not the Cat

Spent before it even had time to blossom into the mainstream, the Kompakt label's schaffel (in English, shuffle) sound now peers dangerously over the edge of saturation, so complete and overwhelming is the number of perpetrators and pilferers. Yet it's still hard to resist that Gary Glitter strut, especially in the hands of those who understand that it takes more guts to walk in 8" platforms than it does to simply joke about them. On his debut full-length, Canadian Jake Fairley walks a mile and them some in his lifts, fearlessly allowing the warm vocals of '80s singers like David Gahan and Bernard Sumner to inspire him as much as the over-the-top electro bark of his most obvious contemporary, T. Raumschmiere. And in doing so, Touch Not the Cat succeeds where Raumschmiere failed, holding consistent throughout the album's ten tracks. Skip the opening cut, "Nightstick," which tries too hard to makes its listeners do the white-boy sashay, and proceed directly to the closer, "All on Me," with its longing vocals and heartbeat bassline. In between, Fairley scorches the dancefloor on "Radiator" and overloads all of the channels with "I Never Try"'s ultratense wall of guitars. Fairley readily admits that his goal with this album is mass appeal. And if you're trying to get your kid brother off the Yellowcard fixation, this record might well do the trick. But "Dinklesburg," with its endlessly looping bell chimes, is pure clicky techno for those who don't need their hand held. Such movements back and forth between good catchy and good minimal make this a good album of good music. No paltry subgenre tag needed.