The Absent Sound’s fifth release opens with “TV Song,” containing the simple and resounding message; “Talk back to your TV as if it had something to say.” The guys from Absent Sound have always put an astounding importance on community, having organized the semi-annual celebration of Element Sircus for years, and this album is a call-to-arms for those looking for more than a mundane electronic/escapist life. It’s obvious that Turn Them Off is the product of A.D.D.-free minds. Absent Sound negotiate these five-minute-plus songs in a pretty calm and collected (though energetic) headspace and the band’s songs turn slowly from start to finish, revealing more mysterious layers as they go along. The time signatures and tempos of “Occupying Home” shift prismatically like few other bands in the city (except maybe their peers Mahogany Frog) could replicate, and the self-effacing angst of “Stuck in Line” is for great dramatic effect. Closer “Hip Hop Knights” keeps its groove for a good seven minutes, making it a great ethereal pop song that closes the album and echoes off into the distance. (Independent, www.absentsound.bandcamp.com) Taylor Burgess
Winnipeg music & culture since 1989