DAT Politics, Kevin Blechdom

Lille, France, may be chilly this time of year, but DAT Politics is up to the task of taking an often cold musical subgenre and making it as warm, whimsical and infectiously human as anything you might imagine. This French laptop trio has released a variety of discs on a variety of labels, but Stateside they are most often associated with Kid606's excellent Tigerbeat6 label, and with good reason. The endearing accents and madcap vocal tradeoffs between Claude Paillot and her compadres Gaetan Collet and Vincent Thieron are glued together with more than just glitchy, danceable beats and blips. True and palpable musical interactions are taking place nestled between the bubbly melodic lines. You'll get a similar feeling from Tigerbeat6 tourmate Kevin Blechdom, late of the oddly monikered Blectum from Blechdom. Stop-on-a dime changes, sudden karaoke-like outpourings, and confrontationally jovial breakbeat absurdity are the hallmarks of Blechdom, whose act is every bit as strange as you might expect from a girl named Kevin. Flamboyant and aggressive local acts the Great Tyrant and Tolar round out this Metrognome-hosted theatre of the absurd.