Bay Area Braindance Goes Boogie

Electronica’s continued universal balance of dance floor avoidance and umbrella coverage of techno and futurepop ambience is just as confusing to grasp as it is to listen to at times. East Coast transfers The Somnambulants are still studying the groove on their third attempt at finding a core; seemingly comfortable in between sorts. Paper Trails two-step its way down cliffs of demise while thankfully keeping a tight grip on intelligent dance delights along the way.

Being middle child isn’t half bad. Much of Paper Trail follows a path of synth-pop least resistance led by acts like New Order while Interpol picks up the rear. It’s actually quite unfair to classify them in the same line save a few tracks of depression.  Most of Paper Trail is misery on caffeine. The duo shine in more upbeat rompers like the laser shot ‘Burning Daylight’ or the equally slick ‘Treat Me Right’. Retro numbers like Go-Go engulfed ‘Eyes on the Road’ or fifties southern draw ‘The Facts’ illustrate the bands assortments, never sounding gimiky and tucked neatly in the belly of a beast driven by rave cores and accessibility. 

Sample sounds are overused all too often throughout turning dissimilar tracks into a hangover déjà vu at times. Daddy downer ‘Close Second’ is the cheerless ‘Burning Daylight’ and brother bummer to instrumental space waster ‘The Strip’. Most of which is wiped clean upon listening to the techno grunger ‘Beat Down’ but the cheerless taste it tries to mask in the albums later parts still lingers.

When the Bay area kids ride the buoyant wave, Trail is a highly reachable dance-pop throw down. Unfortunately their more solemn and slow moments are still battling a band hell bent on not going with it. Still, Paper Trails offers more than enough stylish new wave industrial to make any Joy Division memoirs feel like it was just yesterday.

Sean Kendall