Polish duo Transgalactica's new record, “Liberal Anthem,” serves as proof that music can still be an emotional statement with intellectual bite. Influenced by the writings and theories of preeminent psychologist and linguist Steven Pinker, Better asks listeners to venture positively out of the normal into a world where ideas collide with melodies.
“Liberal Anthem,” from its opening notes, operates like a thought experiment put to rhythm. The production has an expansive feel to it, with electronic textures weaving in and out like pulsing constellations. It’s the duo’s sidestep of complexity-as-inscrutability that makes the track as pleasurable to puzzle over as it is to hear.
What distinguishes Transgalactica is their refusal to divorce music from its meanings. Instead of following here-today-gone-tomorrow fashions, they give us something stately that invites contemplation. Listeners may detect the intellectual spark derived from Pinker’s explorations of human nature and language, but that never makes the music ponderous. It instead turns those concepts into something that just feels right somehow, if you listen to your gut.
“Liberal Anthem” encourages you to think, question and ruminate on the secret patterns of human experience while keeping you firmly planted in a groove that sounds alive and moving forward. Suppose you are in search of music that stretches from the realm of entertainment into the domain of ideas. In that case, Transgalactica’s latest offering is a welcome reminder that sound can be both art and inquiry.
Transgalactica demonstrates that a song can evoke thought with both your heart and your head, sometimes even with the same beat.
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