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(Merck/Couchblip!)
High School Confidential is the debut album from the Minneapolis-based band Tiki Obmar. Three 18 year olds on drums, guitar and bass; the group wrote the songs on marching band trips and school afternoons, then recorded it in a parent’s basement. They’ve balanced production with their Shakespeare homework for far too long and look set to outgrow their high school band roots.
They’ve gigged with some of the cooler underground jazz and electronic heads, and their first album has dropped on one of the more interesting electronic labels of the moment – Merck. Don’t get too many preconceptions from this. High School Confidential is no cold blast of electronics and IDM sterility, though Tiki Obmar have learnt the lessons of the last 10 or so years of leftfield beats. But the mood is all adolescent blues and indie-kid melancholy, with guitar sounds that bounce and grind with sinewy percussion, floaty pads and all that.
Like your favourite 70s rock tunes run through an IDM blender, the taste of lost love and high school parties seep out of the tracks. Live drums, bass, guitar and keys are run through samplers and effects. Like all the best albums, it’s difficult to pick out favourites, and my promo copy doesn’t make the job any easier! But there are some seriously beautiful tracks here in a ‘breaking up with your girlfriend’ stylee.
Check it out at the Couchblip site.
