BOB MOULD
modulate.
(Granary Music/Red Ink/United Musicians)
These days it's not unusual for a respected singer/songwriter to experiment with electronic music. David Gray, Beth Orton, Chris Whitley—it's become a trend in itself. A few years ago, when electronica was thought to be the proverbial Next Big Thing and the Chemical Brothers seemed set to take over the world, these artists would have been accused of jumping on a sparkling bandwagon. Since electronica didn't become the major commercial force its pundits predicted, instead the artists are seen as restless experimenters, even occasionally visionaries. At least by critics—with the fans, it's another matter. Any artist can tell you that any deviation from a successful formula, however slight, results in a deluge of hate mail and promises to never follow that artist's career again. But any true artist follows his or her own impulses first; better to have a musician indulge in a spectacular failure if it gets the juices flowing again than to please the fans with an uninspired but familiar effort.

While doing press for his previous record, 1998's The Last Dog and Pony Show, alternative rock hero Bob Mould made no secret of his boredom for the loud guitar pop idiom in which he'd made his reputation. The uneven quality of Show bore this out. While the record hit Mould junkies right in the vein, as usual, it also made Mould's creative exhaustion abundantly clear. A recharge was clearly required, and in the whizzing synthetics of electronica, he found it. The entertaining toss-off "Megamanic" from Show dropped a big hint as to the guitarist's current interests, while attendees of his solo shows the past couple of years have been treated to a few songs of Mould backed by whomping beats and buzzing synths. The combination of the axeman's powerhouse guitar with the pre-programmed backing was often thrilling to behold.

Which brings us to Bob Mould's latest album modulate. The first album on Mould's own Granary imprint, modulate. shows the fruits of the artist's experimentation of the past couple of years. Mould revels into the wonders of the sampler and the sequencer, nicking bits of hip-hop, electronic dance music and even 80s synth-pop to adorn his latest set of compositions. The groovy "Quasar" and the beat-happy opener "180 Rain" (which unfortunately makes use of a myriad of annoying vocal effects) barrel whole-hog down the programmed road, as Mould's distinctive vocal melodies float above a barrage of synthesized tracks. The Talk Talk-like "Author's Lament" and the 80s-poppy "Trade" use the synthetics more for atmosphere, letting Mould's vox do the work. Laying sheets of electronics on cold slabs, "Homecoming Parade" and "Without?" serve as instrumental segues between tracks. While these cuts meet with mixed success, the soaring "Sunset Safety Glass" puts a haunting vocal over a high BPM rhythm track for one of the record's most successful ventures into pre-programmed terrain.

Despite the sheen of high-tech toys, it's important to note that Mould hasn't forgotten one of the most important elements of his artistic vision: his high-volume six-string magic. Some of the record's best cuts feature his firebreathing Stratocaster carrying the melody over basic bleeps, whirs and buzzes. "Comeonstrong," "Soundonsound" and the future classic "Semper Fi" sport the sound he so proudly showed off during his late 90s shows; the familiar slash-and-burn of his guitar gets a new buoyancy from the bubbling beats underneath it. And for all his professed boredom with his former style, he sounds perfectly refreshed on "The Receipt," "Slay/Sway" and "Lost Zoloft," three tracks whose only concession to electronica is the replacement of a trap kit with a drum machine.

Throughout modulate. the focus is where it always is for a Mould record: on the songs. If the tunes are good, the presentation shouldn't matter as much. He writes the same type of songs he always has: melodic, intensely felt meditations on the relationships between people, with a special emphasis on how those relationships break down. The collection of Mould tunes contained here is his strongest since his Sugar days, and longtime fans should be able to look past their prejudices to see that. Bob Mould's music may have a fresh coat of paint on modulate., but it covers the same, smooth-running engine. Michael Toland [buy it]

For fans of: David Bowie's Earthling, Chemical Brothers' "Let Forever Be," Moby