Art College

Album Review

On her second one-woman band album, singer and multi-instrumentalist Erica Quitzow stakes out a triangulation point between the electroclash aggression of Peaches, the melodic richness and cross-genre fearlessness of the Magnetic Fields, and the disco-classical fusion of the late Arthur Russell. Art College's 12 songs are largely built on a variety of electronic keyboards and rhythm boxes, but Quitzow adds guitar (both delicate acoustic filigrees and noisy feedback), cello, violin, and live percussion to the loops and samples for a hybrid sound that deepens and enhances the songs. Resulting tracks like the ghostly "Rhythm Machines," built on a nursery rhyme-like vocal melody and a halting rhythmic hook, the insistently catchy "Stay Away from John," and the needling electro-stomp of "On TV!" are impressively varied given the bare-bones production aesthetic, testament to Quitzow's songwriting and production skills. (The mid-album respite of the melodically gentle but vocally melodramatic, cello-based "Love" is a particular high point.) Art College isn't fundamentally that different from any number of similar D.I.Y. records, but the quality of the songs and performances lifts it out of the indie-electronic ghetto.