Title TK

Title TK

The cool amber glow cast over much of '93 by the Breeders' terrific last album, the megahit <I>Last Splash</I>, makes a lousy reference point for the willfully lo-fi and rambling <I>Title TK</I>, which finds the Deal twins--former Pixie Kim and her sister Kelley--paired with members of the East L.A. punks, Fear. Recorded by Steve Albini using analog technology, <I>Title TK</I> at first sounds like some long-lost basement recording improbably featuring a pair of sound-alike frontwomen. But the quaint attributes of this faux-relic quickly vanish as it becomes apparent there aren't a lot of ideas at work beneath the chilly atmospheric cooing and narcoleptic guitar strumming. The oddly named "Sinister Foxx"--odd because the women repeat "Has anyone seen the iguana," which is neither sinister nor foxy--is in some respects the set's highlight, despite being about as appetizing as spaghetti sauce under a naked bulb. Here, the women's chantlike delivery is thoroughly eerie. Given the dearth of emotion elsewhere on <I>Title TK</I>, any sign of a pulse is a very good thing. In the similarly snoozy "The She," a wheezing Farfisa organ gooses the song's loitering pace. Only "Son of Three" recalls the gloriously rickety thud of old. Considering that the Breeders' so-called poppiest songs--"Hellbound" from <I>Pod</I>, and "Cannonball" and "Divine Hammer" from <I>Last Splash</I>--aren't exactly buckets of sunshine, this feels sepia-toned for the sheer sake of it. <I>--Kim Hughes</I>