Premiere: Antoine Diligent, ‘Television Eyes’

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Antoine Diligent (Photo by Casey Curry)
Antoine Diligent (Photo by Casey Curry)

If the future’s going to be anything like it sounds on Antoine Diligent’s debut album “Futurisms,” we’re OK with it. Antoine Diligent is the new solo project of Anthony Polcino, the New Jersey native who has slung guitar for a number of L.A. bands (including, currently, Blondfire), played in Epic Records rockers Low vs Diamond and released an album and EP under the deceptive name Soft Pipes a few years back. He also collaborated with Jeff Kite (Julian Casablancas & the Voidz) in the wildly fun dance music outfit Beat Club. We supposed the point of all that is that when Polcino is not playing … he’s playing. Diligently.

“Futurisms,” most of which was recorded in a fervent spate of DIY-ness in Polcino’s Los Feliz apartment (drums by Joe Seiders of Beat Club/the New Pornographers were added later), orbit in the same solar system as Tame Impala, Unknown Mortal Orchestra and Temples, though never reaching the outer edges explored by bands like Fever the Ghost. Its psych-pop/space-rock combines the songwriter’s explorations with analog synths and his love for harmonized guitars — and reflects his nagging fear that our technological age has dehumanized us almost beyond recognition. His inspirations? “I watched a lot of nature shows, like ‘Planet Earth,’” Polcino says wryly, “and Carl Sagan’s original ‘Cosmos.’”

If there is irony in the fact that one can “experience” nature by watching nature shows, it’s not lost on “Television Eyes,” the album’s lead track. You know that glazed look you get from mindlessly consuming what is on screens, ad infinitum? Yeah. “It’s a state of mind that I’m sort of always in (unhealthy) competition with,” Polcino says. “TV shows (Netflix and chill?), Internetting (did you see her Snapchat?) … The part of me that wants to resist that is not going to go down easy.” Neither is our affection for tasty guitar outros, the kind that “Television Eyes” channels. “Futurisms” will be self-released Oct. 28.

||| Stream: “Television Eyes”

||| Also: Stream “Reasons” and “Darkade Games”