www.myspace.com/afaultychromosome
download album on last.fm (donate on myspace)
Listen:
A Faulty Chromosome - "Them Pleasures of the Flesh"
A Faulty Chromosome - "Bad Thing"
If A Faulty Chromosome were a student at Standard American High School, Home of the Eagles/Mustangs/Tigers, he would have probably failed his Public Speaking class. He was impulsive with his thoughts and would jerk to whatever idea seemed to sound right at the time. He spent way too much time daydreaming in class. Not to mention, points off for continually failing to make eye contact.
But, he was definitely the smartest, most interesting guy in the room. And whether the jocks and the cheerleaders knew it or not, at least he could be sure.
Likewise, A Faulty Chromosome the band brings to their album As an Ex-Anorexic's Six Sicks Exit a bit of confidently awkward, anti-pop pop, fuzzing out their already gawky chords and eschewing obvious melodies for hazier layers. It almost sounds wrong. Slurry, indecipherable vocals. Weird sound samples. Indulgent tuning. An overall vague sense of melody and, some might say, music itself--but, a curious, clever vagueness. The kind of vagueness that kicks all expectations to the side, turns its back, plays a song, then watches intently for you to react.
The product gives a quiet but proud smile to a more lighthearted brother of shoegaze, drenched with tremolo and colored with dirty drum machines. And with a few video game-esque blips here and there, the occasional string of guileful wordplay, it's crafted as if from the sort of Montessori ethic of playfulness-to-genius. Under the flood of shy aloofness and dark overtones, in this album is a surprise spark of uninhibited, youthful wonder. "What" begins with goofy xylophone and silly samples of baby gurgling before the almost psychotically ringing loops and hauntingly off-kilter echoes. "Jackie O" and "Bad Thing" coast on sunny, boppable beats fit for a city bike ride or summer drive.
But under those beats and swarming chords emerges a sound more plaintive and lyrics just as much so, repeating Right now trust is like a frozen lake ("A Frozen Lake") or humming With the kiddies in the middle flippin' pancakes on the griddle don't you wish that you were little instead of being fully grown ("Bad Thing"). Loose-handed lyrics flip through carefully unfiltered musings, capturing both the seemingly mundane and the deeply personal and often shooting them in the same frame.
In those snapshots, As an Ex-Anorexic's Six Sicks Exit whirs dusty loner pop that's curious, endearing, often even heartbreaking. What might immediately come off as musically cryptic reveals casually divulgent notes most in earnest. A Faulty Chromosome may not make clear sense at first introduction, but to the careful listener, they have quietly trusted their most intimate and pressing reflections.