If you can't find something that you like about multi-instrumentalist genius Matt Mahaffey (Self) and Jeff Turzo's (God Lives Underwater) collaboration on this album, released under the band name "Wired All Wrong", then you've missed the point in your listening to Beck, Prince, Manson, Bowie, Justin Timberlake, breakbeat electro, and all things redeeming about heavy, sexy electro pop. America has been in dire need of something as groundbreaking and creative as this album, and WAW is the pop band of your dreams that you probably haven't heard of yet. With Mahaffey's brother and partner Mike passing away within weeks of the unexpected death of GLU's front man, David Reilly, Wired All Wrong seems fated to be.
Mahaffey's vocal work is nothing short of infectious. It's sexy, it's quick-witted, it's well-enunciated, and oh so stylish. He can do you through your speakers like Beck on Midnight Vultures and make you grin uncontrollably as he nails falsetto, full-voice, and a truly impressive array of different pop styles in a way that Justin Timberlake wishes he could.
Mahaffey and Turzo both play keyboards, fuss with samples, programming and turntables as well. Renaissance man Mahaffey also plays most of the non-programmed drums on the album as well as all of the guitar.
Mahaffey's mid-drenched guitar work is indeed excellent on this album. It's funky, it's heavy, and Wired all Wrong prove their studio chops as they slice and screw the hell out of Mahaffey's playing and everything else going on with such rigid precision that Justice ought to lend an ear in California's direction. Sampling your own playing and using it as techno-fodder is an interesting idea, and "Break Out the Battle Tapes" exemplifies the process's creative possibilities
And yes, production is where the true brilliance of Wired All Wrong evades debate and dubiousness. The drum beats are really never boring on this album. They differ on every song. Some of them are hard-rocking realistic beats, some are noisy electro-funk beats, but often the two find themselves seamlessly integrated into an unmistakably original WAW aesthetic.
Yes I really mean seamlessly. Is this a pop album? Is this a techno album? Does it really matter? The vocal work would lead one to side with the former while all of the deliciously and meticulously detailed synth arrangements, loops, chopped samples, etc. would lead us to think the latter. But either way, this 2006 release deserves a home in the collection of every electro, indie, and pop enthusiast disillusioned with the safe and mundane genre-centric direction that American independent music has taken lately.
http://rapidshare.com/files/71607509/WaW_-_Break_Out...rar
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I do enjoy a lot of this record. But I'd be lying to say it's my least favorite among the things Mahaffey has done.
1) Apes and Androids which he mainly worked with and played on a couple of tracks. Their debut album from this year is an all-time classic.
2) Call Florence Pow much like A&A's Mahaffey worked with Brian Jacobs and David Tobias before they formed Apes and Androids.
3) Self. The stuff I've heard, which is about 1/2 the catalog, is off and off brilliant experimental, goofy, power-pop. But it's really charming and can grow on you. I happen to love Jellyfish, Silverchair/Dissociatives, Apples in Stereo, and The New Pornographers in the creative, psychedelic power-pop stuff, so Self won-me-over pretty easily.
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