It's quite strange to imagine that there could now very well be ageneration of electronic-based musicians/artists who never sat forhours practicing scales, modes, chords, rhythms, what have you, on anactual instrument. Since the laptop revolution has brought aboutpractically every instrumental sound under the sun for consumption,there's not really a great need to sit with a chunk of wood or brass.Not that I don't favor electronic-based music or the musicians who makeit, but hearing additional sounds that were actually in the ether atsome point before being committed to tape (sorry, hard disk) makes fora refreshing change now and again. I'm What's There to Show That Something's Missing,the latest release from Belgian native Arne van Petegem (aka Styrofoam)enjoyably blends the glitch-type Powerbook beats and sounds with thelive element of prominent vocals and acoustic guitar at times for aninteresting take on modern pop music. "The Long Wait" opens the discwith the arpeggiations of said guitar and builds into a laid backgroove of electronic beats and keyboards that gradually thickens withsome synth bass while van Petegem's lush vocal layers deliver both acatchy melody and lyrics. The more pop-oriented "A Heart Without AMind" skips along to a wall of synth flourishes with the bass line andvocals leading the progressions until guitar and keyboards take over.The opening tape shuttle sounds of the more electronic "Forever, YouSaid Forever" drop out for some sparse keyboards and linear drummachine rhythms to provide the backing track for a sampled conversationof a couple that are in the midst of an arguement over a break-up. Thedisc's eight tunes are well crafted and arranged to highlight vanPetegem's skills as both a programmer and guitar player/vocalist byaugmenting the former with the latter. While this particular formulafor the laptop set is nothing new, Styrofoam's take on it makes for amore animated disc with the likeness of a full band.Read More
