Fresh Tracks: TEEN “Rumblette Mix Tape”

One new project that has steadily seized a lion’s share of my attention in 2012 is Brooklyn’s TEEN. The all-female project led by former Here We Go Magic keyboardist Teeny Lieberson was the subject of a Band to Watch post earlier this summer. TEEN’s ambient, experimental brand of pop is one that I’ve been lapping up with increasing fervor with each subsequent taste in the run-up to the release of their August 28 debut LP In Limbo.

This month’s appetizer arrives in the form of The Rumblette Mix Tape, a six-track sample that finds TEEN affirming the age-old theory that opposites attract. The group mashes a mind-bending set of pairings that range from Pavement to Outkast. For me, the mix really gains traction on TEEN’s cover of 1990s R&B deep cut “Not Gonna” by 702. Floating echo-laden vocals above a minimalist Aphex Twin backbeat gives the track a seriousness and beauty that the original was never able to accomplish. More than anything, The Rumblette Mix Tape confirms what we may have already suspected from TEEN: these chicks know how to stack sounds, however disparate they may appear at the surface.

Stream and download a free copy of The Rumblette Mix Tape below, courtesy of Carpark Records. The covers prove an interesting contrast to the first singles from In Limbo. Check out TEEN’s video for the album’s first single “Electric,” which debuted today. Aside from the song’s spaced-out ending, “Electric” feels tight and focused by comparison.

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Written by Rob Peoni