I met with Mr. Nick Harte in the Astralwerks offices, which, as a label slowly learning to be a distribution company, is learning how to play the part with a reception area on par with a dentist’s office and an artist’s lounge replete with pool table chillingly covered in plastic… Nick Harte sat rigidly on one end in a swivel chair, legs crossed, all in black (including his dyed, firmly parted and matted hair), with two of the DFA army at his side, armed respectively with video camera and monolithic cellphone, both of which could have packed night vision capabilities in as an extra feature.

At first (and maybe second, and third) listen, Shocking Pinks seems an unlikely bed fellow for the dance-dependent, electro-happy bands that epitomized their New York state of cool. On the other hand, Shocking Pinks is another sort of retake on the obscure post-punk dance-rock like Liquid Liquid that inspired DFA’s revivalism.

Harte notes that it was an initial Pitchfork track review years ago (he’s put out three official albums and one self-release under the Shocking Pinks moniker) that earned him notice in the U.S., but it’s also probably that while there is a dancey sensibility to many of the tracks, like “Cut Out”, a frenetic upfront perucssion and chattering eigth-note fret work, Harte also shares with his DFA compatriots an obsessive respect and reverence to studio craft.

He’s studied at a conservatory and played in countless local acts (including drumming for the band The Brunettes, a New Zealand group with inter-band relationships he likened to Fleetwood Mac, “with people sleeping with each other,” but elaborated on no further). Along with drums, he’s tried his hand as an alto saxophonist, cellist, guitarist, pianist and general crapper on your cute attempts at musicianship. He’s grown a very specific sense of musicianship.

“I like the rhythm section to be quite brutal sounding and the melodies to be quite sweet sounding,” he explains.

Along with privileging the percussion parts in this new album, he performed, recorded and produced everything on it. And though those drums balance imposingly in the front of the mix, there’s plenty of ruminatory space on the album, thanks fully to Harte’s studio prescience.

DFA label president James Murphy once decried another pop singer in a Sentimentalist Magazine article:

“Chris Martin could be great. He’s got a beautiful voice. He can say what he wants, and he does, and he writes melodies that burn into your brain, and they do and he sings about …colors. [covers his face in disgust]… I don’t want an apology. I want a fucking record. You’re a rock star. Let’s go.”

One wonders whether he and his label saw something of a savior in Harte’s subtly complex pop music. He’s already demoed three more albums.

“Now that this album’s coming out, I’ll be playing live, touring, promotional things like this [interview], so there won’t be as much time to hide in my room and record. Like I said, I demoed the albums, so I have been prolific.”