Review - Forget Tomorrow

Macha continues to explore Indo-rock (a sub-subgenre they seem to have all to themselves) by pushing their gamelan influences into the hip-today flavors of nostalgic new-wave dance pop ("Forget Tomorrow," "C'mon C'mon Oblivion") and punk-funk ("`Do the` Inevitable"). This new album explores drone and percussive tropes in a way that's similar to earlier releases from Macha, but here, those elements are offered in quite a different context. The pulsing samples are crisp and seamless, if at times as over the top as progressive trance (see "Smash & Grab"). Just when the band's cleverness begins to feel a tad precious, it's redeemed by an intriguing back-half of the record featuring the endearing, Japanese-inflected folk/electro-pop of "Now Disappearing" and "From the Merak Lounge" (which sounds vaguely like Four Tet), and the shimmering, symphonic swells of "Calming Passengers" and its Kabuki counterpart "Sub II."