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TV On The Radio pushes the sound barrier

A misty morning in Brooklyn gives way to a constantly clanging foghorn. A dual-engine plane flies overhead as its propeller beats against the newly formed morning.

The patter of a jogger’s feet on the pavement bounces off the steel that supports the episodic subway trains. That is just the start of the music.

If you take all these sounds, roll them together and add a simple drum you may have the ingredients that help make up a TV On The Radio song — minus the soulsy elegies of vocalist Tunde Adebimpe, of course.

TV On The Radio, which released its first EP this summer, is composed of Adebimpe, Kyp Malone and David Sitek – Sitek produced the Yeah Yeah Yeah’s LP Fever To Tell and EP Machine.

Sitek, who is responsible for the stacked sounds on the album and consistently resonates with the music in Adebimpe’s head, eloquently maneuvers the music on the EP, Young Liars, and manages to flood listener’s eardrums with multiple sounds.

“He seemed to pick up any instrument and just add it in at the appropriate time” Adebimpe said. “Dave is just really good at not being bound to conventional song structures … he works on a very emotional level with that kinda stuff.”

That “kinda stuff” will soon be enveloping a venue in Tampa.

Young Liars, an expansive five-song preview for what’s to come from the band, contains a superfluity of different musical styles. Each track stands alone and makes it hard to know what to expect from TVOR. It even has a barbershop doo-wop style remake of The Pixies’ “Mr. Grieves.”

TVOR’s creative blend of eclectic sounds and crisp vocals has caught the attention of people across the globe. Numerous interviews have been conducted with the band and Liars is getting good reviews. Adebimpe credits a lot of the band’s success to the Internet and people being able to send each other mp3s.

“It’s amazing to me that you can make something in your bedroom in Brooklyn and have some Icelandic kids singing along to this song I wrote on a napkin almost a year ago,” Adebimpe said. “It’s pretty surreal.”

Even though the band has been enjoying the quick success associated with the release of its debut EP, it has been able to keep focusing on what is important — the music. Striving to keep things moving and constantly evolving its sound, TVOR looks to its own expectations when creating its multi-tiered songs.

“As long as you’re being true to your own vision and as long as you like what you hear after you make it, I think that is the most important part of making music creatively,” Adebimpe said.

As TV On The Radio stops in Tampa for its upcoming show, concertgoers can expect to hear an even different type of sound from the band. To create the same effect of the music on Liars, the band stripped down the beats and plays in a somewhat traditional rock setup. TVOR will perform songs from the new album and alternate versions of songs from Liars.

“It’s a very high energy show that we’re bringing around right now,” Adebimpe said.

The hype surrounding TVOR seems too good to be true and some have hinted at the disappointment the LP may have in store, but the band’s sound so far is more experimental than anything else. TVOR’s music draws you in and makes you want to listen more. To borrow from a comment Adebimpe made about the new Outkast double-cd, “Isn’t it a great thing when you’re proud of people you don’t know?” Adebimpe asked. In reply, yes it is.