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R measure for Kyp Malone, guitarist and co
vocalist for the taking-a-break TV on the
Radio. In fact, the solo gig and the self-
titled debut album that came out last month
seem less like a side-project indulgence and
more like an elaboration of an aspect of that
stellar band. Malone's lost none of his soulful
ness in the new approach, and the similar lyri
cal cadences won't seem too foreign to those
accustomed to TV on the Radio's fevered offer
ings. That band's same sense of playfulness
and experimentation with influences remain,
and Rain Machine, recorded over the course of
a year with producer Ian Brennan, brims with
guttural guitars, freaked-out blues howls and
knotty, compelling intricacies. The grandeur of
some of the full-band arrangements is lacking,
but what hasn't changed is the urgency and
yearning in Malone's voice.
TV on the Radio is currently taking a
breather so that the individual members
can concentrate on their separate concerns,
Malone says. And while TV on the Radio
has been his focus since before that band's
attention-grabbing EP Young Liars, Malone has
always written songs meant to be his own.
"For the most part everything I've written spe
cifically for TV on the Radio is written in the
studio and with the idea that we're going to
record in the studio," says Malone. "So, I'll be
working with Dave [Sitek] on beats and such,
and have ideas about different layers. And
even if I have a song with TV on the Radio, it
gets put through so many different filters."
Rain Machine both exposes Malone and
allows him to reap greater rewards, he says.
"I'm a lot less self-conscious about the end
result of a TV record, and we have each other's
backs. Whereas with this [solo album], any
thing that exists on this record I have to take
responsibility for."
Rain Machine isn't as stripped down as
Malone's solo shows over the past years might
suggest. While he's primarily chosen to go
onstage accompanied only by a delay pedal
and his guitar. Rain Machine is just as intri
cately assembled as a TV on the Radio album,
packed with counterintuitive influences and
tendencies: the handclaps and female upbeat
backing vocals on "Give Blood" push against
the song's guitar effects, for instance, or the
slow buildup between the different suites in
"Smiling Black Faces."
album. Though he denies a direct link, the
dreamlike, shamanic imagery on Rain Machine
does invoke some of the same thoughts, as do
Malone's' contemplative, sprawling, ethereal
tunes. "It's kind of a bastardized mandala
form," says Malone, "and also [it comes from]
really liking a lot of the Art Nouveau painters.
I like to draw and paint but I don't do it You
know, seriously, or often enough. Or to tie it
into the content of the album. By degrees,
yes, it ties into it, but it's not a visual narra
tive or anything like that"
For this current tour, Malone's recruited a
quartet of NYC pals to back him up, includ
ing members of White Magic. TV on the Radio
performed in Athens back in April of '07 to a
packed, packed house, and while this perfor
mance probably won't rival that show's wall of
sonics, Malone says it won't be a low-key solo
thing either. "Oftentimes when I play solo
instead of with a band," he says, "it's always
because of what has to happen. [But a full
band] can also reveal exciting possibilities.
I feel like the show's going to be a little of
both."
Besides the current tour, Malone's taken
full advantage of the opportunity for some
time away from TV on the Radio: he recently
produced the second album for Miles Benjamin
Anthony Robinson, and has been contributing
to the recordings of other Brooktyn acts. "It's „
great," he says of his home borough and its
vibrant arts oommunity, "but I want to move
someplace cheaper. I love it, but I don't want
to keep paying exorbitant rents and move into
a gentrifying area just to have the rents go up
and have to move again and gentrify another
neighborhood. It's just'not a system I want
to keep being a part of." And the solution to
existing entrenched in that system? "I feel
like the solution is smashing the state and
overturning the system we live under—maybe
move to the country."
Chris Hassiotls
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OCTOBER 7,2009 • FLAGPOLE.COM 21