- Release date:
- July 15, 2008
- Artist/Band name:
- Negativland
- Record label:
- Seeland
- Official Web Site:
- http://www.negativland.com/
Backstory: Long before Girl Talk’s inventive DJ mixes and Danger Mouse’s pioneering mash-ups made the music industry confront issues of fair use and copyright, Negativland clashed with U2 (or, more accurately, U2’s legal army) after borrowing liberally from the Irish icons on its cheekily titled 1991 EP “U2.” The group built its reputation on sound collages and samples; “Thigmotactic” still employs those, but is the first traditionally song-based album of Negativland’s 28-year career.
Why you should care: While it will forever be inextricably linked to U2, Negativland has a more important place on the pop culture landscape than a jokey reworking of “Where the Streets Have No Name” would indicate. They’ve controversially made the case that an artist need not create original material in order to make an original statement.
Verdict: “Thigmotactic” may be the band’s most straightforward album, featuring genuine singing and songwriting from co-founder Mark Hosler, but it’s still a curio shop of found sound, weird jokes and glitchy effects. Sometimes the results are better described as interesting than enjoyable, and a few times they don’t even qualify as that. But there’s also a lot of assorted fun to be had, as when Hosler considers the origins of milk on the countrified sing-along “By Truck.”
X-Factor: “Richard Nixon Died Today”—the album’s opener and best track—features a sampled star turn from Tricky Dick himself, whose famous words are cut up and used as percussion (“Poppycock!” “Crook! Crook!”).
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