'Tuned In' review: Beats Antique crafts intrigue with 'Elektrafone'

"Elektrafone" by Beats Antique

“Elektrafone,” Beats Antique (Antique)

There’s nothing remotely mainstream about Beats Antique, but the masses have heard little bits of what the San Francisco band is all about.

For example, in Lady Gaga’s No. 1 hit “Born This Way,” there’s a ball-bearings-in-a-hubcap effect rolling through the mix, and after the second chorus there’s a semi-pause in the song in which chopped up notes briefly bubble up before the groove kicks back in. Those are just little bits of song seasoning for Gaga, but for Beats Antique (which had nothing to do with “Born This Way”), such trickery is vital to “Elektrafone,” the act’s fourth release.

David Satori, Tommy Cappel (aka Sidecar Tommy) and Zoe Jakes are serious musicians (Jakes is also a belly dancer) who concoct a playful hybrid of acoustic world music and non-dance-oriented electronica. It’s also a bit of a neo-jazz sound, with all manner of drums and percussion producing shifting and offbeat time signatures. Also, other notes — by strings, horns and even a banjo — are processed to sometimes produce unconventional beats, truncated and/or reversed and/or looped.

Although this instrumental album tells fractured, alternative-universe stories with its piecemeal production, it’s definitely not background music.

Listeners will have a hard time disregarding the airless rhythmic agitation of “Cat Skillz,” the wonky bass of “The Porch” and the brassy buzz of “Alleyway.” Meanwhile, critter-like nuances sound like everything from dolphin squeals (“Skytalk”) to frog calls (“Snarl Axel”), and there’s a geographic hopscotch that jumps from Eastern Europe to the Middle East to the Far East.

Despite occasional murky production (which generally coincides with appearances by multiple guests), “Elektrafone” is a cool curiosity.

Rating (five possible): 4

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