Psychic Chasms by Neon Indian
LABEL: Lefse Records

“Neon Indian works because it is intrinsically aligned with the Carles zeitgeist, where the avant-garde and psychedelic shamanism dovetail headlong with conspicuous consumerism, altbros, and instant gratification.”

Alan Palomo is our first truly postmodern pop star, the sub rosa idoru whose peripatetic sojourn to stardom—a couple of tracks here, an EP there, evasiveness everywhere—is far more indebted to Pynchon’s more aggressively pugilistic subplots than the fourth edition of Songwriting for Dummies. After rising to initial acclaim with Ghosthustler, a primitivist/revivalist electro act (think the 13th Floor Elevators with 808s and faux-Fairlights) that seemed poised for international stardom (remember the viral sensation “Parking Lot Nights”?), Palomo left due to the usual creative differences, re-emerging with the solo project VEGA in 2008. Well Known Pleasures, Palomo’s first release under the new moniker, was certainly a notch above the earlier outfit’s callow, fist-pumping juvenilia; nevertheless, the more torpid points were too indebted to Low Life-era New Order for their own good. And let’s face it, to the haughtier subset of Palomo’s audience, digging the crates for Factory gold is so 2002.

In a shrewd move, the names of Palomo and Brooklyn-based video artist Alicia Scardetta (an old high school chum) were not tied to the Neon Indian identity until two months after “Should Have Taken Acid With You” first began to make waves. Far from the licentious naïveté of his earlier work, Psychic Chasms – the duo’s first EP/very short LP—is a stylistic departure. It's knee-deep in the almost preternatural bathos and summery ennui that recalls Brian Wilson at his mid-sixties peak, or Peter Bogdanovich when he still had Polly Platt in the editing room. (The nebulous contributions of Scardetta may add a tinge of veracity to that assessment in the future.)

If Ghosthustler and VEGA are fundamentally undermined by being predicated on nostalgia for a time that many listeners barely remember—or would prefer to forget, the great music notwithstanding—Neon Indian works because it is intrinsically aligned with the Carles zeitgeist, where the avant-garde and psychedelic shamanism dovetail headlong with conspicuous consumerism, altbros, and instant gratification. (Or the pronounced lack thereof.) “Seems like nothing relevant is happening,” the enigmatic Hipster Runoff blogger wrote in a recent post, tongue firmly in cheek only to himself. “I am not sure if my weblog is ‘too relevant’ or ‘not relevant’ at all.” On “Deadbeat Summer” and “Should Have Taken Acid With You”, this theme stands in the foreground, undergirded by lush washes of detuned synthesizers and metronomic drums that suggest oppressive languor rather than sunny hedonism. The filtered guitars of “Terminally Chill” and the Weilian calliope riff of “Laughing Gas” are a putative reprieve, amiable in the way that “If You Want Me To Stay” is on a Sly Stone compilation after the requisite Riot cuts. The trip reaches its apogee on the concluding “Ephemeral Artery”, a wah-wahed piece of bliss that reflects the taut syncopation of the earlier “Mind, Drips”. Resolution, plain and simple.

Length considerations aside, Palomo and Scardetta have crafted some of the most imaginative and brusque songs of the year. While it’s difficult to gauge how the law of increasing returns will treat Neon Indian over the next six months, these evanescent gems will surely influence musicians for several years to come.


REVIEWED BY SEAN MURPHY
SEAN'S 3 FAVORITE TRACKS: “Deadbeat Summer” • “Should Have Taken Acid With You” • “Ephemeral Artery”
Read more by Sean Murphy on his blog, Brooklyn Music