Here are my thoughts about the record
By Gabe Levine of Takka Takka
Sometimes this record is about existing in a place you don’t belong. Conversely, it is about where you came from and how you got there.
Sometimes this record is about my mother. She recently decided to become a Pamanku, a Balinese holy person. This has brought us do a fair amount of talking lately, more than I have ever had chance to do before. Some of those conversations made their way into these songs—myth, prayer, offerings, gamelan music (oh such sweet music), poverty, volcanic eruptions, Communist purges, cultural misunderstanding, racism, family and abandonment.
Sometimes this record is about a band experimenting with sound and form, trying to honestly say things in song it has never said before.
Sometimes this record is about not going back and staying in the place you don’t belong.
Some words about migration
By Alec Hanley Bemis
I listened to this album once out of obligation because Takka Takka are my friends, but found myself re-listening to it many times because it was pleasurable to do so.
The band didn’t provide me with any names for the songs, and it’s a record that works really well that way. It plays less like a series of songs than one big idea with one pulsing rhythm. There are no singles; rather it strikes me as one long thought cut into twelve individual sections. Maybe music is better that way? Maybe any music that aspires to the condition of namelessness -- that works at one idea so relentlessly -- is the only music that truly deserves the name.
The album is called Migration and I’ve come up with a notion about where that migration might be taking us. To me, this band are part of the wave of emerging young musicians who have been pulling in ideas from world music, but without adopting the colonizer perspective which previous generations of Western artists brought to such borrowings.
Now, don’t get me wrong here. Among that older generation of musicians/colonizers are some of my favorite artists: David Byrne, Paul Simon, Joe Strummer. But it’s hard to argue that these artist weren’t engaged in a kind of creative theft (or at least creative misappropriation) when they jammed out with collaborators from South America, South Africa, the Caribbean, et al.
This new wave of musicians – Takka Takka included – have brought to the table an egalitarian respect for their sources, be it obscure underground rock bands like The Feelies, composer Philip Glass, or the tradition of Balinese Gamelan. It doesn’t sound like Caucasians from the West raiding the world for influence; it sounds like Caucasians from the West realizing we don’t own this planet but are along for the ride just like everybody else.
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Takka Takka’s new record is called Migration. It will be released on July 29, 2008. It was lovingly produced by Sean Greenhalgh of Clap Your Hands Say Yeah drumming fame. It was recorded in Brooklyn and features performances by Bryan Devendorf of The National, Lee Sargent of CYHSY, Olga Bell of Bell, and Charles Burst.
PURCHASE
Migration will be out on July 29 via Ernest Jenning Record Co. Pre-orders are available!
To pre-order from Ernest Jenning, CLICK HERE.
To pre-order from Insound, CLICK HERE.
Our first CD, We Feel Safer At Night, is available for purchase at: insound, iTunes, Other Music, and at Amp Camp.
Purchase the tour EP featuring live tracks from Takka Takka, Architecture In Helsinki and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. Click here. Only a few left!
Our post-Safer EP, Talk Faster, is available for purchase on iTunes.
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RECENT PRESS
July 2008, Spin
"Sun-spotted drone (think Clap Your Hands Say Yeah on a methadone drip) gave way to lush soundscapes that called to mind frozen tundras and burning hearts, while frontman Gabriel Levine played his guitar like he was choking the chords out and shut his eyes tight behind his Buddy Holly frames. Set highlight "Silence," off their forthcoming LP, Migration (July 29, Ernest Jenning), transcendently contradicted its title, as the band wrapped barely there atmospherics around spacey vocals."
June 2008, RCRD LBL
"There's something eerily zen about "Silence." It builds up a platform of snare drum and distorted guitar - over which Levine's vocals flow in a wave-like fashion. "Taker" also has undulating rhythm, accompanied by shimmering instrumentals and a poppier beat progression. Both exude a peacefulness- offering reprieve from a day of cacophony in the city."
May 2008, Stereogum
"Migration isn't just a migration. It's Takka Takka post metamorphosis.
Now in fairness we've based all this on just one quick spin through the new album, but the changes are everywhere (e.g. later on the album, "Homebreaker" hits with a Talking Heads thing, "Lion In The Waves" with a "You And Whose Army"-esque progression, parenthetically titled tracks about "optimists" being right/wrong hit with synthy Eno-isms, etc.). And again, just a one spin verdict ... but the shifts and ambition are a welcome turn indeed. Nice one, Takkas."
April 2007, Spin Magazine
"Takka Takka - We Feel Safer At Night / 4 Stars / Self-Released
ATTENTION, DEFLATED INDIE KIDS: THIS BAND'S FOR YOU.
Brooklyn's Takka Takka seem overly casual or even apologetic at first,
but there's a sneaky intensity to the minimalist urban rock n' roll on
this wonderful debut. Resisting cynicism and self-pity, wry frontman
Gabriel Levine sings the way people talk, resembling a nicer Lou Reed
as he offers moral support to self-conscious loners who get caught up
in society's games, only to "break under pressure." Sample throwaway
gem: "You pushed real hard / But you never pushed enough."
- Jon Young, Spin Magazine
February 2007, Time Out New York
"Takka Takka seems preternaturally gifted at conveying prettiness through guitar pop. The band's casual swagger, both on record and stage, suggests an ease at pursuing this difficult task."
Jan/Feb 2007, Harp Magazine
"[They] catch you with little details like the handclaps, whistling and "oh-ah-ah-oh" refrain on "Coco on the Corner" or offhand rhymes like "Utah" and "you, pa" on "Living Out of Trouble." They're as sweet and hooky as you'd hope that any up-and-coming indie rockers could be."
December 2006, The L Magazine - Top 20 Albums of 2006 (No. 8)
"Takka Takka has made a record that makes us think about Lou Reed, 70s Dylan and late-period Pavement all at the same time, yet still manages to stay current."
December 2006, New York Magazine
"When Takka Takka scored an opening slot with former band-of-the-second Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, rock cognoscenti were alerted to their laid-back organ pop. Together for less than a month, they mesmerized fans at SummerStage, then played to packed shows at the CMJ festival."
December 2006, Rolling Stone magazine (jpeg)
"Unsigned indie-popsters Takka Takka have been a hot property since Clap Your Hands Say Yeah took them on tour this fall."
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