Reviews:: The Borderless Puzzle The Saga of the Breakdance Fighting Giant Robot Pilot

In one of those Michael Douglas / Demi Moore type disclosures, I've known the two members of The Borderless Puzzle for years. In fact, when I first moved to Pittsburgh in '99 Joe and Fish were two of the first people I met, and we've been friends ever since.

Joe was a hippie with hair as long as Crystal Gayle. Fish was much the same (albeit a much better bowler) and I was a pale skinned punk rocker with an Eminem style butterhead. Over the years our musical tastes became more aligned thanks to bands like The Sea and Cake, Stevie Wonder, Kid A-era Radiohead, Ollie & Jerry, Tortoise and (probably most applicable to this review), The Flaming Lips.

Not surprisingly, over that same time period The Borderless Puzzle evolved from an organic, jam band to a more laptop aided collection of blips and bleeps, spacey guitar, Family Guy styled raps and drum machine back beats. The transition has been slow and steady - songs on this record existed in much different forms when I left Pittsburgh - and years of experimentation have only benefited the end results. The Saga of the Breakdance Fighting Giant Robot Pilot is a solid collection of spacey tracks with intricate electro-currents running just under the surface.

Sure the album has its misses (halfway through Escape Pod, I'm actually looking for one myself), but the ups (like the smooth transition from the funk filled epic Craig: The Breakdance Fighting Giant Robot Pilot into Rolo vs. Def Blossom or the engaging whimsy of the strong closer Phoenix) far outweigh the lows. Man vs. machine and sci-fi inspired themes have been a source of inspiration for countless acts, but Borderless Puzzle sets itself apart by handling the subject matter with fun, oddly human touch.

MP3:: The Borderless Buzzle - Phoenix
WEB:: http://theborderlesspuzzle.com

Joe took the time to answer a few questions, as well as include some youtube clips to help cement the information. Enjoy!

HH:: You have some of these songs in the can for a few years, and they've evolved pretty substantially. How did you decide on what version got released to the masses and are you happy with the state the songs are in now?
JS:: well when we started this album the songs that were new to the album were written as they were recorded and evolved through the course of making the album (which was a couple years). The old songs: having already been; you know, written, didn't really change composition wise other that a couple tweaks. Although the production on these tracks did keep evolving during the recording process until we were happy with them but mostly we simply couldn't work on them anymore. In answer your question the decision process looks kinda like this.

HH:: With loops and programming being a key component of the studio tracks, how do you transfer the songs to a live setting and how do you change the arrangements to make a connection with the audience?
JS:: Well we are actually currently in the process of making this album stage-worthy. A lot of the loops and programming were written to both emulate the live sound we had at the time and what we wanted to sound like. that, mixed with some looping pedals and laptops, means some things don't need to change. some components that will change are an easy transition. others, like making the drums more organic, aren't necessarily easy, but we'd rather have a real drummer with some electronic augmentation than just play to a drum machine. This link is of my favorite tortoise song from their new album. I had no idea how they could pull it off live.

HH:: So it's pretty obvious that the music you write evolves from a varied selection of influences. Who are the top 3 and why?
JS:: A top list eh?. usually I hate these. its to hard to choose so i just list my top genres. But I'll accept your challenge.

1. Frank Zappa - for him its a direct and transitive influence. not only is he our influence but he influenced many of the people who have influenced us (Tom Waits used to open for him, nuff said) A perfect mixture of intelligent composition, face melting rock, and infusions of humor (link)

2. John McEntire - tortoise, stereolab, the Sea & Cake have influenced us immensely. Their use of minimalism, and orchestration opened up a whole new vantage point of music. now i could go with the beatles or brian eno or talking heads or pink floyd but i think I'll take an easy way out and say...

3. 90' alternative - yeah I know its a genre and i also know everything in the 90's was called alternative but this is a select bunch of bands with no real sub-genre, no overarching musical style. What they did have in common was amazing conceptual songwriting. I'm talking about bands like Cake, Cibo Matto, ween, Soul coughing, TMBG (although they count as 80's too) beck, pavement, flaming lips, etc. these are the bands that sculpt you, that mold you, these are the bands you have in your car during high school and they never leave.

Labels: Joe Stile, Pittsburgh, The BorderlessPuzzle