Tipsy - Trip Tease

Tipsy totally defies categorization. On a crude level, I suppose you could call them electronic, though I think they actually bring all their instruments into the studio and organically recreate the sound of exotic electronic music. Think of them as Martin Denny on acid.

On their debut album Trip Tease, they seem to get as much pleasure from playing around with their music as they do playing it. Given that Tim Digulla and David Gardner were involved in industrial and ambient projects previously, it's not a surprise that there are bizarre juxtapositions of mood, tone and texture on this album. What is surprising is how well the group's blend of state-of-the art editing and retro-exotica-sci-fi kitsch works. Songs like "Liquordelic," "Mr. Excitement" and "El Bombo Atomico" go beyond the intellectual, studio experiments they could have been, blossoming into hothouse hybrids that transcend genres and just sound good. The weightless keyboards and slide guitars on "Space Golf" and "Nude On The Moon" wink at the Atomic Age's preoccupation with living in outer space, while "Oops!" and "Grossenhosen" sound like a collaboration between Carl Stalling, Raymond Scott and the Orb. "Tuatara," "Fuad Ramses" and "Something Tropical" nod to the exotica trend of the '50s and '60s. The album's remarkable arrangements feature bouncy drums, sitars, harps, horns and all sorts of unclassifiable "space" effects that jell into a collection of songs that are retro and cutting edge, bachelor pad and launching pad.

A must for sound geeks and space age bachelors alike, Trip Tease is an invigorating debut that only gets better with each listen Their music veers in such diverse directions, though, that it is at times difficult to tell the music is even modern. If you own a swimming pool, this is music to lay out with and sip fruity green drinks from martini glasses with paper umbrellas. If you are a landlocked city dweller, this music can transport you to a little island called Tipsydonia, where the natives are friendly, the beaches are white, and there's a luau till dawn every night. If you live in the country and feel misunderstood, this CD will either make you feel that someone does understand your slightly wacky view of the world or make you so immensely cheered up that you will no longer care. Beware, though...listening to this music in your sleep may cause sudden knowledge of the entire Tahitian language and a strange longing for cat-eye sunglasses and pina coladas...

1 Mr. Excitement 2 Space Golf 3 Grossenhosen 4 Tuatara 5 Nude on the Moon
6 El Bombo Atomico 7 Liquordelic 8 Cinnabar 9 Fuad Ramses 10 Oops! 11 Ugly Stadium 12 Something Tropical 13 Zenith

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Check out the archive for their second effort -- Uh Oh! more in the lines of space age pop.