Pattern is Movement

For a while, it seemed like post-millennial music was leading in opposite directions— toward the cost-effective minimalism of the duo, served most often with a guttural garage-blues roar and the pretty, gilded excess of chamber pop acts with expansive memberships including strings and brass. Those two trends coalesce oddly in Philadelphia duo Pattern is Movement, who prove that the size of the lineup doesn’t have to dictate the scope of the sound. Originally a quintet specializing in oddly shaped yet sonorous, math-like angularities, they unveiled their twosome with 2008’s exemplary third album, All Together. Though still possessing an off-kilter, experimental bent, their songs positively overflow with lush sonic texture and exquisite details.

Singer Andrew Thiboldeaux’s swooning falsetto is perfectly precious and expertly cast as lead agiainst the music’s swirling elegance. Traditional verse-chorus-verse structure is completely out the window, replaced by something more reminiscent of opera, with repeated motifs and passages that build to drama. The keyboard/ drums combo recalls the Dresden Dolls, and indeed there’s similar cabaret theatricality, though the blend of noise and delicacy better suggests former collaborator St. Vincent. However, the closest touchstone might be The Dirty Projectors, thanks to the centrality of the mannered soaring vocals in the arrangements, and the band’s commensurate skill at fashioning disorienting yet resplendent music. Though Thiboldeaux consumes much of the musical bandwidth, drummer Chris Ward is PIM’s secret weapon. His tempestuous percussion shadows the rapidly mutating musical configurations, laying tracks just ahead of Thiboldeaux’s steaming gyroscopic sound.

If there’s a genteel air to the music on disc, their live performances rain sweat, bringing out a sinewy, propulsive aspect sometimes lost in the album’s rarified sweep. —Chris Parker