The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com Monday, September 13, 2010 -- 7A No glimmer on 'Sparkle' Art predicts Detroit Blonde Redhead's latest is dull, emotionless synth-pop By JOSHUA BAYER Daily Arts Writer If you're looking for some relatively not-lame background music for your next hipster yoga circle, Blonde Redhead's Penny * Sparkle will fit the bill just peachily. Blonde But that's a damn R shame, considering the band's status as one of the Penny Sparkle more consistently inter- 4AD esting outfits on the indie shiver-pop circuit. With past albums, Blonde Redhead has always found innovative ways to bridge the gap between spidery art house ten- sion and an unadulterated pop sensibil- ity, crafting arrangements that hover like spectral cobras. At its best, the band is a master at hitting eerie pockets between lusty warmth and ghostly intrigue, waiting to strike while subduing with deceptively bubble-gummy melodies. Penny Sparkle, however, finds the group lounging around in a frustratingly mild middle region, doling out innocuous imelodies that are neither threatening nor hummable. While the tracks are all har- monically sound and pleasant enough to listen to, Sparkle often winds up sounding like incredibly high-end spa music, or a candidate for the infamous "chilltronica" genre. "Will There Be Stars," for instance, is like a cardboard cut-out of the band's sig- nature creepiness, with Amedeo Pace's watery vocals washing over cheap-sound- ing drum pad bloops and sci-fi synths that sound like they're on the same settings as the ones used in the "X-Files" theme song. Elsewhere, the music is too docile to even sound purposefully tacky. "Penny Sparkle" and "Love or Prison" are essen- tiallyinterchangeable, with Kazu Makino's wispy voice floating competently around meditation-music synth drones without ever really sticking. While it's clear that the band was going for a more subdued vibe with Sparkle, the end result is an album that's peaceful enough to listen to in full but too harm- By HEATHER POOLE DailyArts Writer Decades after enjoying its pinnacle as the "Motor City," Detroit's once-great legacy is now fading fast in the minds of many University students. Yet a new exhibit, "Considering the City" - hosted by the School of Art & Design's Work " Detroit sjig gallery - contemplates t the future of Detroit as the city goes through Tuesday to immense transforma- Saturday,i1 tions as an urban land- a.m.to4 p.m. scape. until Oct. 8 According to the Work - Detroit School's website, "Con- sidering the City" examines "the new ways of using and interpreting urban spaces for the people that live in them" and focuses in particu- lar on Detroit. The exhibition invites art- ists, designers, architects, urban planners and social practitioners to weigh in on the unpredictable potential Detroit holds. Inspired by the close proximity of Ann Arbor to Detroit, Charlie Michaels, School of Art & Design graduate student and curator of "Considering the City," centers this exhibition on the concept of cities as "constantly shifting organisms." "When I got here, to Ann Arbor, I was really interested in the fact that Detroit is so (geographically) close, but Ann Arbor and Detroit are so different," Michaels said. "I think there's a lot of people inAnn Arbor or in this area that don't use the resources that Detroit has to offer." "Now there is ... this more real plan to shrink Detroit and I think it's a really important time to revisit that idea," he added. Michaels is obtaining his masters of fine arts at the University, working exten- sively in photography. As his work dem- onstrates, Michaels is influenced by the dynamics of cities like Detroit. "My own studio work and my research for my work focuses a lot on cities and (their) changing nature," Michaels said. By displaying the works of various artists who responded to the transfor- mation of Detroit, this exhibit raises various economic, architectural and social issues that will inevitably shape the city's future. "Anything that has to do with urban issues, socioeconomic issues, particu- larly in challenged areas, seems to be a real buzz topic," said Stephen Schudlich, director of exhibitions at the Work - Detroit gallery. "Detroit is such a ripe study ground for that sort of process and non-process that it just seemed ... natu- ral." The exhibit features an array of medi- ums, ranging from painting and photog- raphy to installations, literature and even a LEGO model of Detroit. "Considering the City" also welcomes the responses of "people that are not con- nected to the arts community but are doing things that affect life in the city," Michaels said. Despite the varying political, aesthet- ic, social and economic views and atti- tudes toward the future of Detroit, both Michaels and Schudlich emphasized the open-mindedness of the exhibit. "I think it is open to interpretation and I think that is what is exciting about it," Michaels said. "The debate over what happens to Detroit next or postindustrial cities next. There's multiple opinions, multiple ideas of what we can do, what we should be doing (and) what we shouldn't be doing." "We like to have people ... draw their own conclusions and talk about the topic at whatever level they choose," Schudlich added. Additionally, "Considering the City" aims to connect the various disciplines A look at the potential futures of a fallen city. that are affected by the development of cities like Detroit, as well as an instru- ment to hear views that speak outside of the University community. "We're able to bring in a dialogue from a number of artists and creative people that aren't associated solely with the Uni- versity of Michigan," Schudlich said. "So we get a lot of cross-pollination here." Though "Considering the City" is not based within the familiarity and com- fort of Ann Arbor, the exhibit reaches out toward a larger community, which includes University students - if they can embrace the spirit of the exhibit and make the trek to Detroit. less to demand repeat visits. It's the type of record that works on a bell curve: floating byon first listen, growingonyou steadily as you unravel its yin-yang melodies, and then shriveling up once you realize you'd rather be listening to something more exciting. "Here Sometimes" and "Not Getting There" at least sport legitimate hooks, the former ratcheting up a slow-burn chord progression over an assembly-line drum machine and the latter pitting angsty, New Wave-y guitars against hot-and-cold synth lines for some refreshingly edgy synth pop. But both tracks feel strangely half-assed and synthetic like the rest of the album, begging for a burst of energy and conse- quence. Not surprisingly, the one emotionally resonant track, "My Plants Are Dead," is also the haziest, with swampy guitar mur- murs hanging over a crisp trip-hop beat like a bleary-eyed mist. The song actually feels complete, with its crunchy founda- tion merging seamlessly with the cloudy instrumentals and Makino's bittersweet vocals, emphasizing the unnaturally stag- nant dead space on the rest of the album. While the entirety of Sparkle is intricately produced and fussed over, it still manages to come off as canned and tinny, leaving listeners to wonder if Redhead's stellar 23 would have retained the same mystique without all the drenchy reverb. For purists who felt that 23's lush studio sheen was overly airbrushed and indul- gent compared to the leaner menace of the band's previous work (see: Misery is a Butterfly, Melody of Certain Damaged Lem- ons), Sparkle should offer a mildly diverting alternative. But for anyone else, Redhead's latest is nothing more than a well-oiled snoozefest.