Stars As Eyes
Enemy of Fun (Tigerbeat6)Electro music isn’t very rock & roll. It’s just a bunch of guys pushing buttons, right? Rhode Island expatriates Stars as Eyes are obviously cognizant of this prevailing attitude as they smash it to pieces with the dirty noise throb of “Important Youth Movement.” Snaps and pops, cracks and hisses emerge out of the soup, marrying a Kreidler/Tarwater Teutonic aesthetic to the lo-fi rock grotto. Those familiar with Tigerbeat6 Records, brainchild of young electro-fuzz delinquents Kid606 and Cex, won’t be surprised at these primal outbursts, though they might be intrigued to learn that one of the label’s strongest projects hails from our own back yard. Don’t let the noisy rep fool you, though; Enemy of Fun is full of soft, gentle piano and string samples, short phrases that coalesce into a sound that’s comfortable and accessible, if a bit frayed at the edges. “If I Could I Would Be You” is the biggest mindwarp, crazy distorted spoken ramblings and temporal fracture creating a cyberpunk séance. Organics are Stars as Eyes’ saving grace, as on the in-yer-face live drum assault of “Falling Picture” and album highlight “Our Light,” in which a warm, analog hum falls into a vortex of swirling guitars and pounding polyrhythms. A bushel of voicelike apparitions hum tunefully, suggesting a grand union between My Bloody Valentine and the innocent electronic beauty of Múm. Enemy of Fun might be a party pooper, but it’s a huge victory for Austin’s attention-starved electronic scene.
This article appears in November 29 • 2002.