The multi-monikered James Figurine has just released his first solo album Mistake Mistake Mistake Mistake. You may already be familiar with his work elsewhere as DNTEL or as one half of the band The Postal Service.
New album 'Mistake Mistake Mistake Mistake' sees Jimmy Tamborello aka James Figurine and DNTEL) delving up to the elbows in 4/4 beats - with the resultant album a master class in uncluttered machine music. Harboring a significant debt to Kompakt (particularly 'Total 3') and the likes of John Tejada (who appears on the LP), James Figurine makes electropop that doesn't deal in glittery clichés, preferring instead to ferment the digitalis in a rich compote of sweet melodies and sonic-somersaults that consistently avoid appearing superfluous.
James Figurine mixes his breaks with his silicon; lurching long with considerable velocity, the chunky beats soon give way to a sparkling vista of bubbling synths and couched vocals - the result being not a million miles from that of the Junior Boys, yet different enough to retain artistic autonomy.
James Figurine says:
So this record was supposed to be an extra melodic, minimal techno record with some sparse vocals. Instead, my technopop tendencies got the best of me, the songs slowly filled up, and this is what I ended up with. It’s called Mistake Mistake Mistake Mistake, because that’s what I kept chanting to the beat while I worked on the tracks.
John Tejada (Palette Recordings) assisted me along the way, adding sounds to some of the songs, helping write and arrange a few, and then mixing everything in the end. Sonya Westcott (Arthur and Yu) sang with me on “55566688833,” Morgan Nagler (Whispertown 2000) contributed some lyrics and vocals to “Pretend It’s A Race And I’m On Your Side,” Erlend Øye (Kings of Convenience, Whitest Boy Alive) sang some words written by designer/animator/poet Geoff McFetridge on ”All The Way To China,” and Jenny Lewis (Rilo Kiley, The Postal Service) sang with me on “You Again.”
Jimmy Tamborello comforts himself by combining melancholy melodies with an assortment of electronic production styles, as well as enlisting friends to add vocals and guitar on some tracks. The results range from Timbaland inspired minimal techno to pop songs buried in static, cut-up acoustic guitars, sampled symphonies struggling to find somewhere to settle, found sound and blissed-out drones.
Jimmy Tamborello started working as Dntel in 1994. A collection of tracks created between 1995-1997 (Early Works For Me If It Works For You) was released on the Phthalo label in 1999, followed by the release of an E.P. recorded in 1994 (Something Always Goes Wrong) in 2000. After contributing a song to Plug Research's Voices In My Lunchbox compilation he was invited to do a full length for the label, preceded by a 12" E.P. (Anywhere Anyone).
Tamborello was a member of the guitar based "Eno-core" group Strictly Ballroom and is currently 1/3 of the technopop group Figurine, who has a new record ready to be released on the New York pop label March records. In the past he has also served short stints in SoCal pop groups Further and The Tyde. Over the years he has released music on Plug Research, Phthalo, March, Darla, Blackbean & Placenta, ~Scape, 555, Sub Pop, Fierce Panda, Waxploitation, Thousand, Motorway, Monika, Q Tape, Elefant, Invicta Hi-Fi, tbtmo, Chocolat Art Returns, Silent, Little Red Square and Visible.
»James Figurine Website