Mahjongg

The Long Shadow of the Paper Tiger (K)

By Jennifer Kelly
Published: July 22nd, 2010 | 1:00pm

Mahjongg makes pointillist grooves out of every sort of sound, musical and otherwise, myriad tiny fragments juxtaposed, jostled, and jerry-rigged into dizzying, dance-friendly mosaics. Radically uninterested in the line between music and noise, Mahjongg has always been as likely to splatter paint with the sound of computer circuits touching as with instruments like drums, bass, guitar, or violin. For this, their third full-length, however, this gang of musical anarchists dips into a new cache of sonic material—multi-platinum sounds like auto-tuned vocals and sleek dance beats. The process is the same—chopping blippy bits of tone into Afro-funky rave-ups—but the source material is disturbingly commercial. It takes a little getting used to, especially on the uncharacteristically shiny front half of the album.

Consider, for instance, the extended “Grooverider Free,” a loose construction of synth, drums, and some sort of tonal percussion that rattles like the ‘L’ train that runs through the accompanying video. So far, classic Mahjongg, except for the airy, inhuman vocals that float through the piece, which sound like they’ve been kidnapped from a mainstream rap song and held at gunpoint in some artist squat. “Miami Knights,” with its synth string swoops and echoey, hip-hop production, is even more divergent from sweaty, physical aesthetic that has defined Mahjongg up to now, the jittery rhythms submerged under a chilled layer of slickness.

Things improve in the second half. “DeVry” has the outrageous sexual swagger of Mahjongg highlight “Hot Lava,” while “Whoop” simmers just under the boiling point, soul falsettos dancing over iridescent cadences of multi-tonal percussion. Closer “LA Beat” is a full-on, head-tripping, body-shaking triumph, the heat of the beat melting though computer-altered vocal effects, the best song on the record by far.

Mahjongg is calling their latest iteration Chicagotronics, linking their technology-enabled, primitive celebrations to the home-rigged, amateur-amped grooves of Konono No. 1. Fine, but Konono never let their use of technology overwhelm the pure physical pleasure of the music. There are some sounds that always sound like money-grabbing commercialism, even if you filter them through an aesthetic as pure and radical as Mahjonggs. Why not leave the auto-tune out next time?

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K Records