Album Review - Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs: Trouble

Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs
Trouble
Rating: Yeah Daddy Make Me Want It

UK electro producer Orlando Higgenbottom, who performs as Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs (TEED), is known for his elaborate stage shows featuring intense lighting, dancers, glitter bombs, and elaborate headdresses that make him a resemble a Las Vegas showgirl crossed with a stegosaurus. You can have the most amazing live show in the world, but without the music to back it up, it can all be a bit hollow. TEED doesn't do anything fancy, trendy, or truly ground-breaking, instead, putting out a set of beat heavy electro-pop tracks that bounce around from house music, synthpop, to even a few explorations into 2-step. What you lose in originality, however, you gain in outright catchiness. Trouble collects a series of tracks from some earlier EPs and joins them with some new tracks for a fairly pleasant, fun listen.

Trouble works best when it sticks to more structured synthpop tracks. "Tapes & Money" is a bouncy, glittery track featuring some catchy synth work peppered with vocal samples.



"Garden" winds down a more minor key way, but the downtrodden tone is lightened by some squiggly synth lines and a heartfelt vocal from Luisa from Lulu and the Lampshades.



"Household Goods" brings a brighter view into focus, the glistening keyboard lines flow all over a thumping beat.



TEED ventures into deep house territory for the relentless "Trouble," which builds layer upon layers of keyboard lines into a frothy mix.



There are a few outside the comfort zone moments on Trouble that were also intriguing. I loved the atmospheric opening of "American Dream, Part II" leading into the pounding electro-house beats;



opening track "Promises" throws a bit of a curve ball off the bat with nods to 2-step, building a funky track off the skittering rhythms; "You Need Me On My Own" is a buzzy ballad with a lowkey vocal from Higgenbottom;



while "Closer" also feeds on a peppy 2-step beat.



There are a few issues with the album. Higgenbottom's voice is fairly deadpan and unemotional throughout the record tending to make a lot of the tracks seem similar. A little more vocal diversity would have made the flow of the album a little more distinct. And too many of the more house-influenced tracks never really took off, coming across as bland and generic. "Shimmer" is, well, all one-note shimmer, "Your Love" has a fairly repetitive beat and melody without any sort of release, and "Panpipes" starts out intriguingly before getting muddled in repetition again.

All in all though, Trouble is a fun, well produced set of dance tracks that will fill a dancefloor as well provide a soundtrack to a fun house party. A little more vocal and musical diversity in subsequent releases would bring a little more to the table. Based on his live show videos, however, that seems to be one area that he is not lacking. I definitely intend to catch him live if possible.

Rating Scale:

Chilfos: masterpiece; coolest thing I've heard in ages.

Woof Daddy: excellent; just a hair away from being a masterpiece.

Grrrr: very good; will definitely be considered for my top releases of the year.

Yeah Daddy Make Me Want It: good; definitely invites further listens and piques one's interest for more material.

Meh: not horrible, but certainly not great; could have either been polished, trimmed, or re-thought.

Jeez Lady: what the hell happened? Just plain bad. They should hang their heads in shame and be forced to listen to Lady Gaga ad nauseam as penance.

Tragicistani: so bad, armed villagers with pitchforks and torches should run the artist out of the country for inflicting this abomination on the human race.