Broadcast

It baffles me that Broadcast never caught on the way some of their colleagues did. Far lesser bands were somehow waved through the gates of the ’90s indie rock pantheon, but Broadcast were unfairly labelled "derivative” and held back right at the entrance. Personally, I’d take one United States of America rip-off act (which they are not, by the way) over 20,000 Talking Heads or the Fall "re-noodlers” any day. And they don’t sound like Stereolab, either. Anyway, The Future Crayon is a collection of Broadcast’s b-sides and reissues from 1998 to 2003. Like their first release, Work and Non-Work, these songs have separate origins but work synergistically in record format. Like all of Broadcast’s albums, there are stunning, eerily perfect nipple hardeners and ambient mood builders working in communion, and Trish Keenan’s spectral wise-woman/ingénue vocals sliding along trademarked icy psych pop — but really, such a beautiful thing defies such a stupid description. Fans who pined for the lost grandeur of 2000’s crystalline Noise Made by People after the band lost half their members and became fuzz addicts (last year’s Tender Buttons) will dive right into this treasure trove, if they haven’t done so already. Fans who appreciate all of the band’s stylistic nuances will find most of them here. Broadcast’s varying albums and phases have, at times, put off fans or potential ones — this compilation unites the warring factions under one ethereal electric blanket. Simply put – everybody wins!