Chicago-based Telefon Tel Aviv has appealed to many since their inception: with simplistic yet magnificently complex constructions that made them darlings in certain circles. Their first two adventures, Fahrenheit Fair Enough and Immediate Action #8 stand out as their most accomplished releases, where they generated their unique sound and rooted themselves as a competent ambient electronic act. Their forthcoming effort, Immolate Yourself picks up exactly where they left off, with a sound much more mature and textured’coming complete with its owned imagined world’fully equipped with freeform dynamism of a celestial and delicate styling. The title of the album, serving as a nod to self-sacrifice, gestures towards the listener to give themselves up to the ethereal confluence that the album envisions. It’s a rewarding experience, the album has loads to give.
The opening track commences with an appetizing blissful feel that permeates throughout the album’s latter depths. ‘The Birds’ begins with a soft yet rising tension that gives it a quality of cloudiness, of a dreamscape speckled with birds in migration towards a cold yet pleasant place. In seamless transition, the tracks complement themselves as if the album was itself a single song, only disrupted by the second gap between cuts giving it a feeling of it being still and unmoving, yet surprisingly whole. Songs such as ‘M’ and ‘Helen of Troy’ lift up the tempo quite a bit, helping the album move along and assert itself through the accompanying sunken vocals. Perhaps the most characteristic song of the bunch is the regal ‘Your Every Idol,’ boasting deep-set background vocals tied together with a militaristic slow-moving rhythm. The album works itself out towards the end, bringing unity to the whole. ‘You Are The Worst Thing In The World’ and the title track ‘Immolate Yourself’ gives us the finale’the culmination of a dream, with its ups and downs, its ins and outs, all while remaining focused with exceptional polish.
TTA may be on the move. The New Orleans founded duo reside in Los Angeles and Chicago, and the album has found it’s way to Berlin’s BPitch Control label. But they are still grounded in the sonic alchemy that we loved from the get go. The world needs Change, but we’ll happily keep TTA the same.
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