The Resurrection Show

Three years after their debut as Electric Music AKA, Tom Doyle and Anth Brown returned with The Resurrection Show, which arrived via Sanctuary due to the unfortunate shuttering of ZubiZaretta/Grand Royal. From its cover art, featuring the principals chilling in the enormous Great Hall of London's Alexandra Palace, to the supplemental shots of analog turntables and religious iconography, it's pretty clear what kind of music AKA is making. It's retrofitted electronica with grandeur in its memory banks and a cold reverence for details. The cut-and-paste style favored by types like Mountaineers and Beta Band is applied with more cohesion here; in other words, Doyle and Brown are careful to create actual songs, and not simply digital pastiche. At the same time, the electro-hippie vibe typical of those groups has been replaced by calculation and austerity. There's definitely human warmth in The Resurrection Show, but it's been processed by robots and hermetically sealed for consumption by fashionistas of the future. Vintage keys and some kind of electronic wah-wah noise give the soulful "Some Bright Shining Future" a cozy vibe, but it's oddly detached, like it's on infinite repeat in an unmanned listening room with no visible speakers (or exits). Likely singles "Something Up With the Stars" and "The Slapback Sound" are really nothing more than chopped-up harp and drum samples and familiar-sounding guitar riffs running underneath the titles' catch phrases. Still, the tracks are a tasteful, arty union of the Doves and Air — catchy, odd, and heartfelt all at once. The Resurrection Show could have used more organics to offset its meticulous feel. The melodies still soar, but the groove is cool and metallic to the touch.