February 16, 2007

Trans AM: Sex Change

Washington DC electro veterans return

3 / 10 After finally reaching their zenith on 2004’s ‘Liberation’ (a brilliant anti-Iraq War protest record of claustrophobic electro soundscapes), Nathan Means, Sebastian Thompson and Phil Manley promptly split and headed for different corners of the globe. Now, three years on, much of comeback album ‘Sex Change’ leaves you wondering why they’ve bothered reuniting. ‘Reprieve’ and ‘4,738 Regrets’ – dreamy, Air-esque electro-pop hazes both – are pretty passable, sure, but otherwise aimless bleepy electro-rock jams (‘Climbing Up The Ladder Parts III And IV’), dull post-rock by numbers (‘Triangular Pyramid’) and a turgid electro-metal workout (‘Tesco V Sainsbury’s’) make for boring listening. Sparse, directionless and half-formed, Trans AM’s eighth LP is nowhere near the radical transformation its title suggests

Rick Martin

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