The Aluminum Group: Pelo

Since its quiet 1995 debut, The Aluminum Group has redefined smooth for a generation of music listeners bombarded with exotica reissues, bossa nova compilations, and Burt Bacharach and Serge Gainsbourg collections. The group, formed around the fraternal duo of John and Frank Navin, understands not only that the past can be embraced without irony, but also that yesterday's "music for the future" can be retooled to sound more like music for the future today. The postmodern can of worms opened by picking through the past has worked in The Aluminum Group's favor more often than not: Plano unveiled stylish smarty-pants soul and disco, while the dull but adventurous Pedals envisioned prog-rock as easy listening. The new Pelo in many ways combines the approaches of the band's last two albums, but to even less effect. Guests from Chicago's music scene, including Mekons singer Sally Timms and members of Tortoise, bolster the already-solid playing of the Navins' regular contingent, and while the songs aren't particularly sharp, the music (produced by the Navins, John Herndon, and John McEntire) most definitely is. This is space-age bachelor-pad music that would make Stereolab proud, harmonious "ba bas" and all, but the disc plays like a shimmering mirage of background noise and little more. "Good-bye Goldfish, Hi Piranha," "If You've Got A Lover, You've Got A Life," "Satellite," "Cannot Make You Out," and "Worrying Kind" are smooth as hell, but they eventually run together into a mush of pitter-patter beats and gently chiming acoustic guitars. Can something be so smooth that it just slips away For all its pleasantness, Pelo comes awfully close to this invisible ideal, an achievement in its own right but not an especially engaging one.