Trans Am transcends noise beyond rhythmic barriers

Trans Am
The Surveillance
Thrill Jockey

Self-described as "three geeks from Oberlin," Trans Am have come forth with their third album, The Surveillance, released on Thrill Jockey last month. It presents a careful, subtle departure from their previous recordings, but the effect is hardly reminiscent of a nerdy group of experimental TIMARA students.

Careful in their synthesized, punkish, progressiveness - even after four years - Trans Am has defined their niche in an increasingly trendy genre of TIMARA progeny that includes Seam, Tortoise, and The Sea and Cake, with John McIntyre as the foundation for the latter two.

This album was Trans Am's first record recorded and mixed entirely by the band. What results is a raw, yet contained combination of ingenious electronica and heavy, hard rock. Sporadic beats mesh into complete songs, but the beginnings and endings of "songs," in the traditional sense, are irrelevant to the effect that the album produces.

Take Kraftwerk's '70s-era foray into synthesized pop, combine it with an equal amount diesel-powered contemporary hard rock of Tar, and top it off the ingenious beats of DJ Shadow, and you've got the makings, if not necessarily the influences, of The Surveillance. Tracks six and seven, "E.S.I." and "Home Security," epitomize their latest offering as a flurry of electronic beats which blend into a progressive, expressive construction of powered rock.

With the brash invention of Trans-Am's newest release, accessibility is not a word to use. There is a pulse of an early metal style, but that theme is turned around and saturated with the rhythm of a much more contemporary feel, that of refined electronic synthesis.

Don't file Surveillance under art-rock, punk, or even electronical. "A no bullshit album," is what the group has dubbed its newest release. The specifics are not divulged, but several drum machines and effects processors are new additions to Trans Am's third set. It is quite evident that the group spent a long time trying to figure out the implications of such a technical work; the result is a deep and unpredictable, but enticingly rhythmic. Still, it is far cry from most music, which is founded upon melody.

Don't buy Surveillance if you're looking for a few reliable good songs, but if you're yawning from the same old experimental indie thing that's been going around for the past few years, Trans Am will fill the void.