Trans Am - What Day is it Tonight?

 

A limited edition in advance of a new studio album slated for next year, What Day...? serves as a neat overview of the Washington minimalists' 16-year career to date. To call it a 'best of' however is to overlook the fact that some of the band's more surreal and crazily inventive pieces (such as Cocaine Computer and Total Information Awareness) don't feature. With years of live experience to draw upon, only the interjections from the audience make it clear that this is not a studio effort, such is the clarity of the production. Having set themselves up as some kind of electro-krautrock Spinal Tap, treading that fine line between parody and pastiche, the humour evident in spaced out jams like Futureworld and Fire Poker is a joy to behold. It is, however, difficult to take Trans Am seriously when their attention turns to matters grave, such as on angry anti-war rockout Idea Machine. [Wilbur Kane]