tijuana mon amour broadcasting inc

Cold Jubileee (Of The Snowqueen)

Tijuana Mon Amour Broadcasting Inc. take their place alongside Magnolia Electric Co. as a great band with a name more suited to a utility company than a rock group. Don't let that mislead you however, this troupe purvey an innovative blend of musical styles and approaches, bringing together jazz and modern classical influences to augment the tightly honed post-rock sound they've established over the course of three prior albums. There's a mixture of vocal tracks and instrumental songs here, with the album jolting into life at the hands of 'Living In The Future', a prime example of electronic songwriting akin to The Notwist or Thom Yorke. '88' is, in structural terms at least, a very straightforward piece of music, combining a lyrical Wim Mertens-style piano composition with an overdriven hip hop break. The overall feel comes across a bit like a live reworking of DJ Shadow's 'Midnight In A Perfect World', all deep blue melancholy and robust beats. The organic post-jazz of 'On The Top Of The Mountain' and 'Next Room' ensue, leading up to frosty, predominantly acoustic ballads like 'Day After' and the effulgent string swells of 'Cold Jubilee'. This is most definitely one of those albums that has a very tangible atmosphere to it, and far from sounding like a record for midsummer, Cold Jubilee Of The Snow Queen is more in line with the kind of austerity its title suggests: it's those resonant, wintry piano chords and rich string arrangements that do it - and it makes for a wonderfully un-seasonal listen. Beautiful.