Happily, Blackout - an unfortunate choice of title, given the nature of Spears' recent travails - opts for the latter course, unleashing a torrent of ferociously distorted synthesizers, electronically treated vocals, snapping drum samples and bovver-booted glam rock beats.
"Take It In" is case in point: a minimalist electronic track with maximum impact, driven by snapping drum machine rhythms, hypnotic synths, and plaintive vocals.
Holfelder used the SoundScape VR project to play and sequence the music, allowing him to snap drums with virtual drumsticks and play the piano using the Vive paddles.
Yes, they're available on compact disc, but the CDs lack the LPs' visual cool -- the urban photos and silk-screen lettering on the hand-pasted cardboard covers -- and fall far short of the first-edition vinyl's sonics: the vibrant horns, wood-thumping bass, head-snap drums and sizzling cymbals.
"Piña," one of the group's earliest tracks, uses four electric piano chords to tie together all the sounds that wander in and out of the mix: snapping fingers, conga drums, echoing sound effects.
In the phonics program, teachers snap or drum their desks as they recite set prompts -- "Next word, what word?" -- and the students respond, pronouncing a sound -- "ea" -- then words -- "nearly," "year," "deal" -- in mind-numbing monotony.
They play so energetically that by the second song, Petralli has broken a guitar string and Josh Block has snapped a drum stick, but he's prepared for this sort of thing – there's a heap of spare sticks at his feet.
Thanks in part to production from the New Jack Swing auteur Teddy Riley that matched hard-snapping drums with sensual melodies, Heavy D & the Boyz became key figures in the softening of hip-hop's sharp edges.
But he's lost almost none of his verve as a producer, as heard here on songs like "Fire and Brimstone" and "Ghetto Rendezvous," with lush and sensual funk buffeting hard-snapping drums.
The precocious guitar riffs, the breathy vocals delivering meaninglessly memorable lyrics as the backing harmonies coo behind them, the clap-clap of the snare drum snapping down like a mousetrap -- these are the tenants of your typical Top 40 girlpower pop, yes, but Haim's delivery of the foundational elements are entirely their own.
Mr. Claypool's thump-popping bass and Mr. Copeland's finely articulated drumming -- snapping the beat to attention with every paradiddle or cymbal tap -- added up to rhythms that were both pointillistic and brawny.
