TV On The Radio, X-posure Live, Camden Barfly, June 2 2004

added 07 June 2004 at 17.16

Every now and then, when you least expect it, something comes from so far out of leftfield, so way beyond your usual reference points that you’re left reeling as your head goes into a dizzy spin as you try to comprehend the magnificence of what’s just hit you between the eyes. Remember the buzz the first time you heard Tricky? Or 'OK Computer'? Then get ready for Brooklyn quintet TV On The Radio.

Originally the brainchild of Yeah Yeah Yeahs producer turned guitarist David Sitek and former NYU film student, singer Tunde Adebimpe, the way-out-there vision of TV On The Radio is augmented by uber-afro’d guitarist/backing vocalist Kyp Malone, bassist Gerard Smith and drummer Jaleel Bunton and between them they have created the most original and striking band to have emerged thus far in 2004.

‘Staring At The Sun’ is beautifully hypnotic; Smith’s minimal bass throbs are complemented by Sitek’s spookily treated guitar while upfront Adebimpe’s rich voice is perfectly matched by Malone’s near-gospel harmonies. This could be the love child of 70s experimentalists Pere Ubu and Sonic Youth, raised by the guiding hand of Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry. But as soon as you think you’ve got TV On The Radio pinned down, then they’re off again on another obtuse tangent. ‘Dreams’ roves and roams as it oscillates between do-wop backing vocals and an ominous sense of dread whilst never losing sight of the urgency that underpins it.

It’s a theme that runs consistently throughout tonight’s set – a gorgeously constructed and controlled chaos that seduces and menaces in equal measure. With new album ‘Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes’, TV On The Radio have drawn a line in the sand that sets them apart as true originals and tonight’s breathtaking performance serves notice to all pretenders and wannnabes. All power to ‘em.

Julian Marszalek

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