You might know Jake Lazovick for the anti-folk releases under his own name, or maybe from the rock band Foozle. Sitcom is another of his monikers, an experimental electronic project which challenges the notion that weird avant garde music has to be obtuse or difficult. Indeed, Drum set is quite the opposite.Made on Lazovick’s computer using “software, microphones, various objects & samples”, the album is made up of pop songs in the New Sincerity aesthetic of simplicity and positivity. Take ‘traffic is okay’ as an example…
“traffic was okay
the day wasn’t so bad
walk slowly through the rain
cause i love it”
…and ‘yellow jacket’ toward the end of the album:
“later on
i sing my song
it is a rainy day
with my yellow jacket on”
To add to the simplicty, Lazovick includes two sets of four songs (eight of the 18 tracks on the album) that do not exceed one second in length. The first quartet (listed 00.00 by Bandcamp) are entitled ‘kick’, ‘click’, ‘sound’ and ‘tap’ and are merely samples of the instrument sounds. The second (this time 00.01 in length), entitled ‘J’, ‘A’, ‘K’, ‘E’ , are, you guessed it, Lazovick spelling out his own name. These are a deconstruction of Sitcom’s style, the first reducing his sound to their basic components and the second breaking what is already a pared-down lyrical approach into even smaller pieces. The result comes across as a piece of advice, a friendly suggestion to remove yourself from the overpowering but needless complications of life and to instead focus on the important, simple parts.
You can buy Drum set now via the Sitcom Bandcamp page.