REVIEWS

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The Qualia
Nevada's Greatest!

WTII Records

Posted: Wednesday, November 28, 2007
By: Matthew Johnson
Features Editor

Cowboys and analog synths? Two great tastes that don't taste so great together, right? Wrong. The Qualia's Lars Casteen is a synthesizer geek to be sure, but judging by his debut album, he's also got more than a little Wild West romance in his heart. Opening track "Nevada's Greatest Man" kicks off with a twang of Ennio Morricone-inspired guitar before launching into a mid-tempo electro-pop ballad about a robot cowboy, but don't mistake Casteen's Wild West fascination for mere quirk; the songwriting on this album is too solid for a novelty act, and the lyrical themes of hard deserts and harder men are sincere, if unexpected from an electronic artist. "Better" is a grim tale of betrayal and revenge set to a deceptively upbeat drum pattern, and the quietly determined "Center of the Solar System" is a subtle meditation on the homesteader's loyalty to community (and, by extension, the distrust of outsiders). It's not until the final track, the edgier and harder-hitting "Stakes," that Casteen plainly spells out his fascination with the Wild West romanticism - warts and all - that informs the rest of the album: "People had it easy in the days of wind and dust / Although there were some incidents that some might call unjust." Despite the tumbleweed and whiskey imagery throughout Nevada's Greatest!, The Qualia's music is more suited to '80s dance club than '50s honky-tonk, and once the initial shock of Spaghetti Western flourishes wears off, it becomes apparent that whatever else The Qualia may be, it's also a solid electro-pop outfit. "Just a Thimble More" pans sampled guitar tones across the stereo channels under Casteen's wistful vocals, and "I Feel Sick" pulses electronic drumbeats beneath classically-inspired pianos. There's a warmth in Casteen's music that sets The Qualia apart from the crowd though, thanks to pop-flavored guitar strums on such offerings as "Two Complaints" and instrumental "The Waste," and then there's "Motorcar," an unlikely and seemingly unwieldy seven-minute pop epic that draws on everyone from They Might Be Giants to Brian Wilson. Even without the cowboy metaphors, Nevada's Greatest! is an endlessly fascinating blend of pop influences, unpredictable and unexpected, yet somehow familiar at the same time.