Dat'r,Turn Up The Ghosts (Hush)

[March 14th, 2007] [ART POP] Turn Up the Ghosts, the debut LP of Paul Alcott and Matt Dabrowiak's Dat'r, is odd on a couple of fronts: First, it's being released by the generally unassuming pop-folk-centric Hush Records—birthplace of the Decemberists and home to shy-sounding artists like Laura Gibson and Blanket Music. Dat'r is nothing like shy; it's an excitable indie crossover band born of (currently hibernating) math-pop outfit Binary Dolls, itself a sparse project that counters Dat'r's stylish and warm, party-friendly offerings.

Second—and quite unlike Dat'r's live show—Turn Up the Ghosts is more precocious than pretentious. Onstage, Dat'r is known for lots of "look what I can do" hopping around, switching setups, and that damn playing-drumsticks-on-the-wall shtick. But Ghosts is a catchy, alarmingly intelligent pop album that nods (perhaps gratuitously) toward dancefloor rhythm and sampled electronic skronk and squiggle—like a musically stripped-down, innocent version of !!!.

Much of Turn Up the Ghosts' appeal is in Dabrowiak's vocals, which are smooth, all over the register and tipped with notes of desperation, breathlessness and snarl. And, at its polished and produced best (on "The Bloody Lump"), Dabrowiak's voice is among Portland's most distinctive in recent memory. We could probably do without the brief falsetto that appears on "Silica," however—an otherwise interesting track whose maelstrom of synth, static and an odd electro-funk outburst sounds straight off the Beastie Boys' The In Sound from Way Out!

The other compelling element on Ghosts is Paul Alcott's occasionally hyperactive, stunningly adroit drumming. As with !!! and full band Hot Chip (another of Dat'r's more mainstream crossover compatriots), the liveliness of Alcott's drumming provides a dynamic that holds surefire allure for the indie-cum-dance crowd. On "Innercom/Inner Calm," Alcott employs slightly adapted rock drumming (complete with a snare solo), and on "Turn Up the Ghosts" (parts I and II), he runs the show with a meticulous, driving lead reminiscent of Menomena's Danny Seim.

But, given Alcott's onstage mania, his work on the album is mostly restrained, as is Turn Up the Ghosts as a whole. And Dat'r was wise to focus on craft here—rather than attempting to cram its performance energy into the binary code of a CD. MICHAEL BYRNE.