Telefon Tel Aviv – Immolate Yourself

Does anyone have any details about the album cover? Who is that person? Where is it? Is that vent structure real? Does it represent anything?

Telefon Tel Aviv shift to Bpitch Control for their third album, IMMOLATE YOURSELF, their last album as a duo before the untimely death of Charlie Cooper. But the slow build and thrum of “The Birds” show them at their best, more fully merging the vocals that at times seemed ill at ease on their second album. For the most part, they’ve lost the twitchy IDM percussion for steadier beats, which helps highlight their melodic leanings, though remnants of it remain in the clattering breaks of “Your Mouth.” “M” aims more towards electro, allowing it to come to fruition in “Helen of Troy.” As if to take a breather, “Mostly Translucent” offers a moment of spare calm before the Depeche Mode-inspired “Stay Away from Being Maybe” livens things back up. The thrumming instrumental of “Your Every Idol” leads to the album’s highest point, the heartbreak of “You Are the Worst Thing in the World.” The title track closes the album on a calm note, with lyrics that hint at resignation. An excellent piece of work.

What follows below is a review for an album whose title has been rendered regretfully apt. The sudden passing of Telefon Tel Aviv’s Charlie Cooper only two days after the group released their long-awaited third full-length studio record is a coincidence suggestive of a sacrifice: an untimely departure at the arrival of something so great, yet so final. The well-deserved reception of Immolate Yourself, made public on 20th January, has since seen TTA fans buzzing with excitement across music forums worldwide. Based in Chicago and originally from New Orleans, the duo comprised of Cooper and Joshua Eustis had opted to join Berlin’s BPitch Control community shortly after their successful release of Remixes Compiled (including Apparat’s ‘Komponent’) provided clear indication as to why such a marrying of talent would be ideal. Previously signed on with Hefty Records, their earlier albums Fahrenheit Fair Enough (2001) and Map of What Is Effortless (2004) had been emotive masterpieces in their own rites. Early introduction into the world of TTA meant listening to tracks such as the first’s title number, ‘Introductory Nomenclature’, and ‘Nothing Is Worth Losing That’, with an awe reserved to the contemporary electronic greats who so masterfully balance the timbre of their glitches, the time-delays on snare and the synthetic chorus in reverb that unfailingly elevates the entire listening experience. Telefon Tel Aviv have always presented something so beautifully understated with their music's philosophical allusions as evidently inspired by science and literature ('What’s The Use Of Feet If We Haven’t Got Legs?'). But beneath that, their unique chameleon metamorphosis integrating sounds across genres (most notable R&B and ambient) into a quasi-minimal techno has never ceased to impress. And Immolate Yourself takes that even further, bringing in some New Wave inspiration ('Helen of Troy', 'M') with all the heavy 80s synth necessary for nostalgia to boot. Yet, somehow it still manages to sound very much like TTA, culminating halfway through on the hauntingly poignant 'Mostly Translucent' so worthy of replay and reminiscent of that driving force behind the fifth on their second LP. But all of this is beside the point. Because it is in this nature of TTA’s sound that Charlie Cooper will be remembered.

Please don't compare TTA to the fly-by-night template success of Gabriel & Dresden, the latter of whom have broken up proving the overall absence of their artistic merit. TTA made brilliant music for a decade, with 3 artist albums to their credit. This album showed their capability of branching out for a third time after their first two albums, this time encompassing a synthpop and retro aesthetic but with enough glitch and atmosphere to make the album all their own.

RIP Charlie Cooper.

Telefon Tel Aviv, with their extraordinary beats from their first two albums, have departed slightly from the formula by giving up some of that deep bass for a more eighties sound.
One some tracks it works, on some it don't.
It can't be argued against that TTV are great producers, and the album still retains the TTV touch of production till perfection.
Similarly to Gabriel & Dresden, TTV has moved closer to some unspecified area of hard-to-define genre or style, but in true contemporary spirit, it definitely works.