Temporary Pleasure album | Wichita | 2009

Get past the processed vocal that sounds a little like an Adam Buxton pisstake of a Basement Jaxx track and you’ll find Yeasayer‘s Chris Keating namechecking everything from Bill Murray to Peter Tosh, to minidiscs to robot vacuum cleaners. Keating here sounds like a Nineties Bret Easton Ellis’s Patrick Bateman in hyper-privileged savvy metrosexual overdrive (sorbet, high fashion, exclusive social set), only tinged with anguish with the question ‘I’ve got it all / You know it’s true / So why don’t I have you?‘ Simian Mobile Disco sculpt a bleeping, jerky techno pop backdrop to Keating’s tortured soul-pop performance.

Thanks to M for telling me about this one. I’m re-posting this short review since I’m currently writing about the new Simian Mobile Disco album (Whorl) for Electronic Sound.

First published 2012; re-edited 2014

(c) 2014 Mat Smith / Documentary Evidence