The Chromatics

The trouble with an act like the Chromatics is that they're really cool. It's intimidating, really: You can't listen to Nite, their newest Troubleman release, without second-guessing the hipness of the rest of your record collection. Hailing from Seattle (the land of the too-cool- for-school mindset), the act is an...

By Tuyet Nguyen

October 19, 2006

Audio By Carbonatix

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The trouble with an act like the Chromatics is that they're really cool. It's intimidating, really: You can't listen to Nite, their newest Troubleman release, without second-guessing the hipness of the rest of your record collection. Hailing from Seattle (the land of the too-cool- for-school mindset), the act is an experiment in modern DFA-like beats pulverized by lo-fi electro fanaticism and no-wave simplicity. The band began as a quartet in 2002, but the usual squabbles caused a shakeup that left multi-instrumentalist/ vocalist Adam Miller as the sole survivor. Miller eventually added Nat Sahlstrom, another poly-armed musician, to the ranks. With help from various vocal/instrumental guests, the pair wrote Nite, a disc whose production credits are attributed to Johnny Jewel of Glass Candy. The group's current rhythm section remains unnamed (at least in all bio info); it's just that sort of peculiar aloofness that makes the Chromatics so exasperatingly intriguing.

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