Electric Six - Heartbeats and Brainwaves Review

Garage, Disco, Dance Punk band Electric Six have previewed 5 new songs which will appear on their eighth album Heartbeats and Brainwaves, to be released in October.

the band have posted a message on their Facebook page describing the new album and songs

In Heartbeats and Brainwaves, Electric Six has created a work of art that confronts these existential crises head-on. All the while it manages to be so entertaining that you completely forget that your limits of time/space comprehension render you completely unable to answer why you are really here. You’re too busy falling in love with Electric Six to realize that you are being fucked with.

The album opener “Psychic Visions” sets the tone in a very Bad Seeds-esque fashion. It is swanky, it is dirty, and it is powerful. One minute into the album and you will immediately feel like you need a carton of cigarettes, preferably Virginia Slims. You’re about to do some smoking, son!

Heartbeats and Brainwaves is an Electric Six album. And that means there is no one single sound, no one single vision. We do everything. From the nu-garage “Gridlock!” to the R&B goodness of “It Gets Hot”, to the bright, poppy, feel-good “The Intergalactic Version”, Electric Six assures you that it will never settle on a single path forward. There are six of us, and we go both ways. So, I guess our music goes twelve ways, then. Yeah.

Do you like Phil Collins? Then you’ll love “Hello! I See You!”. Not just because it sounds like an up-tempo Phil Collins tune from 1987, but also because it’s about the ecstasy of the moment when we realize and accept that demons are real and live inside us forever.

If you like the moments when Electric Six gets really arty, then you’ll love “Bleed For the Artist” and “We Use the Same Products”. If you like when Electric Six sounds like Roxy Music, then you’ll love the internacionale chic of “Eye Contact.” And if you like the time when an Electric Six album finally comes to an end, you’ll love the new wave title track “Heartbeats and Brainwaves”, because you never really know when the end is coming....full text The result of a‘two songs per band member’ ideology, HEARTBEATS AND BRAINWAVES,that latest from Electric Six is due out on October 11, 2011 via Metropolis Records. The band will be hitting the road this weekend on its Hello, Destructor!!!! Tour, starting in its home state of Michigan and wrapping around the US.

Heartbeats and Brainwaves marks a return to synth-heavy dance rock that the band cut its proverbial teeth on (i.e. classic like "Danger (High Voltage)", "Gay Bar", "Down At McDonnelzz") while continuing to push the boundaries of its rock exploration. "We consciously decided to do a synth-heavy album," front-man Dick Valentine explains. "When I first started talking to Johnny Na$hinal about going in that direction for this album, he simply said, 'It's time'." The album that Electric Six created is one of their most cohesive and expansive records to date. From the smoky "Bad Seeds-esque" swankiness of the opening track "Psychic Visions" to the big-bottomed R&B of "It Gets Hot" to the big, bright pop of "The Intergalactic Version", this album keeps their funk/dance rock core intact while expanding in textures, rhythm and melody. "The intention of 'The Intergalactic Version' was to make the outro as poppy and triumphant as possible," he says. "We think we did that, but it also ended up sounding like it belonged in a bank commercial. Banks can be triumphant too... though it's been awhile."


Heartbeats and Brainwaves
album art
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"I personally love every track on this album," Dick surmises about how it seems to encompass their whole identity. "I think that the lyrics on 'We Use The Same Products' are some of my best... and the lyrics on 'Free Samples' are some of my dumbest." And while "French Bacon" tends to rate as his favorite ("for the Giorgio Moroder-reason"), he doesn't play favorites. "We definitely like our albums to be all about the album as a whole and not just one particular song," he concludes. "This one holds up in that regard as well as any we've done."
Electric Six is Dick Valentine (vocals), The Colonel (guitar), Johnny Na$hinal (guitar), Smorgasbord (bass), Tait Nucleus? (synths) and Percussion World (drums). Their eighth album, Heartbeats and Brainwaves, was produced by Zach Shipps and will be released on Metropolis Records on October 11, 2011....full text The group famed by the hit “Gay Bar” and “Danger High Voltage!” have struck gold yet again with their new album Heartbeats and Brainwaves. The album as a whole is versatile by nature, venturing out from the previous album Zodiac. One of the characteristics of Electric Six is they never fail to bring in diversity, and Heartbeats and Brainwaves brings just that. With tracks such as “Bleed For the Artist” and “The Intergalactic Version”, Heartbeats and Brainwaves is definitely a must have for the avid Electric Six fan.

“Psychic Visions” starts off the album with a strong goth rock feel, quickly elevating into a sci fi themed dance party with the likes of “French Bacon” and “Gridlock!”. Though the die hard Electric Six fan may be more prone to hit the repeat button for the tracks “Free Samples” and “Eye Contact”. Those who have yet to take a listen to previous Electric Six albums won’t feel out of the loop either, as each album has surpassed the previous with daring mixtures of pop, rock, disco, and garage elements combined into one. The best way to describe Heartbeats and Brainwaves in its entirety would be a psyched up outerspace dance party, simply put....full text