Restless People

Both musically and personnel-wise, the Brooklyn-based electronic dance/pop group Restless People are effectively a conflation of two acts: the defunct eclectic dance-punk outfit Professor Murder (three of whose four members — Jesse Cohen, Mike Bell-Smith, and Tony Plunkett, aka Tony Blankets — are in this band as well) and Tanlines, the production duo turned live-band project of Cohen and ex-Don Caballero/Storm & Stress bassist (and Professor Murder producer) Eric Emm. In particular, the timely treble-focused electro-tropical vibe that Emm and Cohen concocted as Tanlines carries over unmistakably in their work with Restless People: the group's self-titled debut album, which arrived in September 2010 only six months after Tanlines' Settings EP, continues very much in the sonic vein of that release (interestingly, Restless People was billed as an LP although it's only three minutes longer). In keeping with their stature as a full-fledged band, however, Restless People lean even more toward conventionally vocal-based songs than electronic dance tracks, with Emm's enthusiastically scrappy singing helping to establish an urgent, punkish positivity. Prior to their official/physical debut on Iamsound Records, some of Restless People's tracks appeared via the band's website/Internet label Family Edition, whose "releases" also include EPs from associated acts Newborn Huskies and Bulldozier, gag TwitPics, and re-soundtracked YouTube videos. ~ K. Ross Hoffman, Rovi