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.
"Takka Takka offers just a sketch of a sound, letting their instruments trace a tune, and dance around the beat rather than pounding the rhythm home and filling in every inch of aural space. "I come at our music more like a painting than a song," Takka Takka leader Gabe Levine says. "You start with a sketch, then add more colors as you go." The result has made their music some of the most playful, light and evocative on the New York scene today. Their latest CD, "Migration," suggests more than it states, letting the guitars pirouette and the synths twinkle. Luckily, the melodies prove pretty enough to make it all work." (Jim Farber)
"Takka Takka, a Brooklyn band, gets the guitar-picking patterns on its album “Migration” (Ernest Jenning) from all over: Minimalism and math-rock, Africa and Indonesia, funk and folk and psychedelia, often over beats that sound like rock anthems burnished smooth by the notes pelting above. The band members sing as if to themselves, murmuring glimpses of catastrophe — “You walk around while the city’s on fire too. Fight on.” — and transcendence: “Talk without making a sound. You and universe.” Despite some earthbound moments most of the music is rock as meditation, with orderly repetition trying to keep the deepest fears at bay." (Jon Pareles)
"The group's also not defensive about the one-world direction taken by the aptly named Migration, a disc that doesn't differentiate that much between the indie-din of the New York boroughs and, say, the Gamelan music of Bali. Migration, Takka Takka's second album, was produced by Clap Your Hands Say Yeah drummer Sean Greenhalgh, and also features that band's guitarist Lee Sargent, which perhaps explains the still lingering links to straight indie-rock, but those connections are tenuous. This music aims for something new, something occasionally otherworldly." [7.2]
"[Takka Takka's] sophomore effort develops an atmospheric, rhythmically sophisticated sound that recalls the late-'70s work of Peter Gabriel and Brian Eno"
"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."
"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."
"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."
"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."
"[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."
"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."
"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."
Just wanted to let you guys know I'm making a beautiful beat out of about a 5 second chop from one foot in a well. It's part of an album of beats I am making for one of my good gals for her bday..hip hop/rock girl..Please don't sue me..i'll send it to you when its done.
hi takkas just dropping by to tell you that I am still in love with your music! and by the way, I finally uploaded the full 10 songs, so there is plenty of new material... yours Tom
I video taped your SXSW show at Coffee! No Pants! Here is the link for your fans. I think its easy enough to find on YouTube also. I still have an un-named track there - I could use some help on that.
