Red Wire Black Wire Compass EP

It’s possible that this five-song EP – the debut of a Wesleyan University band – appeals to me partially because their live shows over the past couple years have consistently provided me with some of the best nights I’ve had on campus. Their music works fantastically in the live setting – propulsive and danceable, with choruses catchy enough to ensure that before the band ever officially released anything, half the audience at their shows already knew a substantial amount of lyrics to several of their songs.

Red Wire Black Wire’s music is built around traditional pop structures, underpinned with electronic dance elements, and occupies a place within the current trend of bands mixing electronic and organic sounds freely – their palate includes guitar, cello, synth, and both electronic and live drums. Their particular use of this instrumentation places the band towards the more emotionally direct end of the spectrum of such bands – when a relaxed guitar melody is interrupted by fat, dirty bass synth tones in the intro to opening track I Agree, it hits you in the gut, not the head. All bass lines are handed over to the synth, a decision that more closely associates their sound with actual dance music than most dance rock bands, while the cello parts are tasteful and subtly affecting, thankfully avoiding the sort of cloying sentimentality that they are so often used for in a rock context. (Wow, that Plain White T’s song is irritating – but so catchy!)

For much of the album, the band seems torn between aiming for earnest emotional directness and unashamed bombast, and the result is often exhilarating. On the EP’s best moments, such as Reverse Tinman and Compass, vocalist Doug Powers’ quietly melancholy lyrics and light delivery aim for emotional directness while contrasting with instrumentation that shouts at the listener to get up and dance. Less heavily electronic tracks suffer somewhat from sounding slightly out of place – closer Dying or Insane is an enormous crowd favorite at live shows, and for good reason, given its absurdly catchy chorus, but given its context on the album it sounds slightly empty. Likewise, the lightly folk elements of Bloodline, also lovely live, sound somewhat misplaced in the context of the EP.

I’m curious to see what this band could do with a little more money behind them, given the energy of this self-produced EP. The intro to Compass, with its electro-meets-horn stomp, is one of EP’s best moments, refreshing, energetic, and slightly dirty, and it hints at the possibilities this band could achieve. I hope they keep going.