My first encounter with Komeda was hearing "Curious" from 1998's What Makes It Go on WFMU* on release. That album is a masterpiece of bright Euro-pop, sometimes informed by funk.
It was not until now I found The Genius Of Komeda, the band named after the composer who scored many of Roman Polanski's 1960's films. It would be hard for any album to match What Makes It Go.
But one album meeting the match of the other is a false argument: Komeda here do what the best bands do best--run their sound through different styles. If What Makes It Go is pure pop delight, Genius Of works around new wave styling and European art rock. The songs here are structured and tight, but the underpinnings function more on melodic counterpoint, usually provided by the guitar sometimes playing against the keyboard. It is not abrasive, but the aural textures here are slightly rougher than the candy cane popfest of the other album.
Did this surprise me--at first, but not for long. My guess is that, like there bigger contemporary Stereolab, Komeda probably spent as much of their youth listening to Can and Faust and Neu! as they did Serge Gainsborg and 1960's French Soundtracks.
And they are better for this. We can argue over our tastes-what sound we like better, what makes the MUSIC go-but we all know there is room for all of it in the Genius World Of Going Curious Komeda.
**WFMU is a free form radio station, one of the few left where the DJs can do whatever they want. You can hear ALL types of music there at Wfmu.ORG. I write a blog for them for free, but get nothing out of pushing them except to turn you on to great old style progressive radio and a Niagra Falls of great music,
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