Take Five with The Alternate Side: Poliça

Graham Tolbert
by Kara Manning | 08/03/2012 | 12:20am

Fridays on FUV, Take Five with The Alternate Side. This week: Poliça.

When autotune is abused — and yes, Ke$ha, we're looking at you — it's painful. But in the right hands, as aptly demonstrated by Bon Iver or Poliça, the audio processing technique can be downright beautiful.

Singer Channy Leaneagh and her longtime Gayngs cohort and producer Ryan Olson have created a mesmerizing digitized soundscape on Poliça's restless debut album, Give You The Ghost, utlizing autotune with sensuality and tenderness. Although Leaneaugh, a former member of the Minneapolis folk-pop outfit Roma di Luna, still leans heavily on Olson's songwriting, her delicately determined vocals exude confident ownership of tracks like "Violent Games" or the brassy "Dark Star."

Poliça kick off a fresh set of North American dates this week, including a stop this weekend, August 5, at Chicago's Lollapalooza festival. The band won't make its way back to New York until the fall, playing Webster Hall on October 6.

Not long ago, Channy and her bandmates — drummers Ben Ivascu and Drew Christopherson and bassist Chris Bierden — visited The Alternate Side and WFUV's Studio A for an exhilarating session, playing a set from Give You The Ghost. Read the interview highlights and watch all of the videos at The Alternate Side; listen to the session when it airs today at 11am EDT on 91.5 WNYE and online.

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