Max Tundra

Parallax Error Beheads You

(Domino)

recommendedrecommendedrecommended 1/2

Max Tundra is an unlikely pop singer. The multi- instrumentalist, producer, and remixer born Ben Jacobs breaks a mold similar to that busted by Jamie Lidell, moving from IDM to electro funk to pop R&B; only where Lidell has made that progression linearly over time, Tundra does it several times—forward, backward, and sideways—within each of his deliriously hyperactive songs.

Even Max Tundra's most ostensibly pop songs, such as "Will Get Fooled Again," cram in a mess of stupefyingly stuttering drumbeats, odd virtuosic guitar and keyboard flourishes, miasmatic microsamples, and strange changes. "Until We Die" rides a racing rhythm, with off-kilter piano, synth, guitar, and chimes arpeggiating and circling like a swarm of insects—then it turns into a power ballad, then a slow, steaming bass riff, and then back. The effect is like hurtling past musical scenery in a dangerously swerving automobile or a roller coaster running off its rails. Either way, everything threatens to become a nauseating blur—which of course is half the fun.

Another defining trait of Max Tundra's songs is a certain, geeky fetishism. Parallax Error Beheads You refers to a kind of analog film camera malfunction. "Nord Lead Three" is a devoted and Devo'd ode to a favorite synthesizer, full of new-wave stomp, daft monotone lyrics, and clipping live drum clatter. Gentle ballad "The Entertainment" repeats the photo shoptalk before being swept up into a cheesy, echoing, trance-synth lead that somehow strikes the perfect mix of saccharine and sentimental. "Will Get Fooled Again" treads a similarly dangerous line between cringeworthy and cute with its references to Google, MySpace, and eBay.

There's something almost sad about the Jekyll/Hyde schizophrenia of the starry-eyed crooner and the mad studio scientist. It's like Max Tundra keeps trying to make a simple pop song but instead ends up with these wonderfully confounding creations. When he sings, "I was born to entertain," there's something pleading about it—this is all he can or wants to do—but he's not boasting, he's begging. So it's especially satisfying when it all comes together on the romantically confused "Which Song," whose melodic, digitally breathy chorus is the most catchy and affecting pop moment I've heard in a while. recommended

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