Atlanta band Omni make music that owes as much to the NYC punk of Television as it does to the power pop that came out a few years after. That they are pursuing this kind of thing in the 21st century suggests that they've found a way to make these forms fresh. They have. The band's latest album, Networker, is out on Friday via Sub Pop and it's one of the best things you're going to hear this week.
If "Sincerely Yours" has more than a trace of Tom Verlaine about it, the brighter "Courtesy Call" is easier to embrace. This one uses a rhythmic hook to let the tune dance around the edges of multiple genres, even as "Skeleton Key" reveals that this band has listened to Pavement a bit. The number is one of the highlights here, as is the more insistent "Present Tense", a chipper bit of New Wave business.
At their best, Omni make you sort of overlook how relatively straightforward this material is. I mean, "Blunt Force" is, despite a nice Afro-pop-inspired guitar-solo, a rather simple cut, but Omni manage to make these jerky rhythms feel momentous, and to such an extent that something like "Flat Earth" invigorates due to the eagerness of the players at embracing this style so thoroughly. If you own a bunch of Talking Heads records from the Seventies, you've likely heard some of what's here, but Omni are genuine in their zeal at making this work. Three albums in and I remain entranced by this group's compositions.
Network will be out on Friday via Sub Pop.
More details on Omni via the band's official Facebook page.
[Photo: Emily Frobos]