ARTICLE + PHOTOS BY CHRIS MØLINA/AUBURN SKY IMAGING
"It's been 10 years since Telefon Tel Aviv headlined a show in Los Angeles" as frontman Josh Eustis declares to a sold-out Masonic Lodge crowd at Hollywood Forever Cemetery. Telefon Tel Aviv is 20 years old now and one of Josh's biggest obstacles is trying to occupy the headspace of deceased band member, Charles Cooper while contemplating, "Is there still a place in the world?" or "Does anybody still care about the band?" So far the positive critical reception of the new album Dreams Are Not Enough dictates otherwise.
The album title is taken from a haunting recurring dream where Josh finds himself wandering out into the ocean in hopes of reaching a school of porpoises. There he sees a deep shelf drop off leading into a dark abyss of the ocean. While gazing into this dark abyss, Josh spots his 8 yr. old self-standing at the bottom in a completely frozen state of death. In 2009 Josh captures the dream in poem structure, translating into the album song titles ‘I dream of it often: a younger version of myself, standing at the bottom of the ocean; arms aloft, mouth agape, eyes glaring, not seeing, not breathing, still as stone in a watery fane.’
Before the show starts, Josh places incense at the foot of his performance desk; it is a "hand made blend of copal, black oud, and oakmoss. Trying to bring a third sense to the idea of a live show". The venue house lights drop to pitch black as the sequenced ambient pulses of "Not Seeing" begin playing seconds later. In recent years Telefon Tel Aviv's aesthetic presentation might be best described as Sci-Fi Goth. While minimal in stage production Berlin-based Krsn Brasko of Pfadfinderei (best known for Moderat + Modeselektor creative support) is pulling duty for the visual direction on this tour. On a side note, it's worth mentioning Josh is loaded with a healthy music IQ and lethal production skills which garner him plenty of street credit in the electronic music scene, while informing his multiple engineering, producing and notable band projects. These sensibilities are immediately palpable in a live setting as the audio fidelity is clearly delineated with ratcheting time precision, oftentimes feeling like a visceral film soundtrack experience.
We dissolve into a seamless cerebral transition to the album's signature track "A younger version of myself" which separately noted has a stunning music video shot on-location in Downtown Los Angeles. The vocals possess a muffled and a slight underwater distortion that adds a dark atmospheric dimension. The strobe lights are blasting from both sides of the stage casting a dark ghostly figure effect of Josh's silhouette against the white walls behind him. For these brief moments, the spacial relationships within the venue have an implied sense of reconfiguration.
"Mouth Agape" brings the show back to a dreamy downtempo flow; the forest trees projection map visuals are some of the most memorable of the set, serving as the perfect vehicle for the drifting lyrics "We were better...". Though, these soothing tones are abruptly smashed to pieces by the menacing Autechre motifs of "Not Breathing" which is inspired by the crushing shock of Josh discovering an unfamiliar version of his childhood house listed on a real estate website. The pain of Josh's childhood being robbed is evident through the vocal of a demonic sounding Transformer looking for revenge.
A highlight of the night was the stuttering synth and bass build-up "Of Something Akin to Lust". Both the track and visuals completely shred everyone in the venue with an assault of strobe lights and blowout basslines. This is the duality of Telefon Tel Aviv at its best. A push and pull juxtaposition of gorgeous ambient swells smothered by torment while begging for release.
While Josh ponders the validity of Telefon Tel Aviv's place in the world, at least for one night at a Hollywood Cemetery, to a packed room of people stood a collective- unspoken "Yes". During our conversation, Josh explains "there are two things you can't un-change and that's death and time." And on that note, there is no better time than now for experiencing this iteration of Telefon Tel Aviv.
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Posted by: lionbreath cartskrt | Jul 25, 2020 at 06:58 PM