Tex La Homa - Here With You EP
(Superglider)
Bedroom electronic pop is an easily maligned genre. Sure the new wave hits of the 80s and the techno hits of the 90s can be recreated by a lonely guy operating in the DIY indie rock aesthetic, but, much like communism, how the ideal works in practice is often less perfect than the pitch of the leader of the revoltion. Giving a lonely guy one too many keyboards often ends up in either wanking experimentation, a total lack of quality control, a reinterpretation of cheese, or—ack—a combination of the three. Bands like Her Space Holiday create some gems but too often create albums that are hard to stomach due to the common pitfalls of the genre.
Tex La Homa (nom de rock of Matt Shaw, a literary reference to something like "That 70s Show") is a British version of Her Space Holiday, and if his most recent EP, Here With You is any indication, Shaw does a lot better than the majority of his American companions in keeping things solid and respectable. Limited to only four songs, Shaw makes good with two of them, and, while the other two drag, it seems more of a conscious decision to get somber instead of a lack of focus or forethought.
Shaw makes the style his own, mixing more British sounds into the mix, referencing the bass and dance beats of post-punk New Order and the chilled, spacey sounds of shoegazers like Ride and The Cocteau Twins. The first two tracks are wonderful melancholic pop and show great promise for Shaw. The beats are simple and delicate but provide a study framework for Shaw's soft sounds. Keyboard melodies are quick and to the point, and the atmospherics are soft and lush, covering the entire area of these two songs. Shaw's vocals are quite similar to those atmospheric keyboards, staying fairly monotonic, delivered like a romantic whisper. The timbre of Shaw's voice is not always in agreement with the sounds from his instruments, and while that may be minor on an album full of tracks, it can be a distraction on a short EP like this one.
The other two tracks are sparser and less enjoyable. "Piano Song" starts off with a solid bassline, however when the main piano theme (a stammering 6-note progression) enters, it takes over the song. Everything, from that nice bassline to Shaw's vocals, seems to work against the piano theme. The piano part repeats and repeats and repeats, making the song seems much longer than its four minute duration. "If You Ask" is even more sparse though, adding country flare from an acoustic guitar, sounding somewhat like a Bedhead song. The pace here is methodical, and the song goes nowhere, its slow paced structure just repeating on and on to the end of the EP. Either of these two songs would have been a fitting end to the CD, a soft and supple way of drifting off into silence after the fuller first two songs; however, back to back, the songs just seem to drag, lessening any positive feelings gotten from the beginning of the EP.
Tex La Homa leaves me half-fulfilled. While on one hand, I would be more than open to hearing the next full length from Shaw, this EP is hard to recommend on its own. While Here With You would make a good introduction to Tex La Homa if bands like Her Space Holiday suit your fancy, there is not enough good music on it to warrant a full recommendation. Hopefully any upcoming albums provide a better planned mix of the dense, rich songs with the sparse, downbeat songs.
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