Charlie Cooper and
Josh Eustis' second and third
Telefon Tel Aviv albums are as different from one another as their first and second albums. Fahrenheit Fair Enough's fractured, melodic instrumentals morphed into crisp song form on Map of What Is Effortless, with vocalists and string arrangements helping to shape alternately jagged and sweeping productions into tense glitch/R&B torch songs. Following Map,
Immolate Yourself -- released on
Ellen Allien's Bpitch Control label -- increases the pensive energy and tension, with both conveyed through snapping beats, taut sequencer patterns, sheet upon sheet of textural elements, and vocals that come across as desperate and/or pained, even when barely audible beneath all the consuming sounds. These are chilling sounds from a dark place that, nonetheless, shelter the listener. Between the European and stateside physical releases of the album, Cooper passed away. Knowledge of that could only intensify the album's most passive spins. ~ Andy Kellman