While TM Eye's music is wholly danceable, song titles like "Pollution" and "Deepwater Horizon" suggest the local electronics-and-vocals duo is up to something more than just kicking out party jams. Its aesthetic is steeped in cultural references; even the name compounds pun upon pun -- especially when rendered, as it sometimes is, "™Eye."
The music is a marriage between the song-based writing of Phil Boyd, best known as the singer and guitarist in Modey Lemon, and the electronic music of Preslav Lefterov, one of the proprietors of Machine Age Studios. The two began playing together after Modey recorded at Machine Age; the band came together in late 2009 and began performing in early 2010.
"We do like a lot of dark electronic music, but we also like poppy songs," Boyd says. "This was a way we could mix things together, and maybe mix them up in a different way."
With Modey on unofficial hiatus ("Not on purpose," Boyd says, "but we've been inactive for a while"), TM Eye has become Boyd's focus. He hopes TM Eye will soon have a full album recorded.
"We have a handful of songs, and there's a concept -- a lot of it stems from an old project of mine called Giant Squid," Boyd says. "It's about the environment and history and -- maybe they're pretentious topics, but a lot of it is about nature versus man. I found that it fits texturally with the music."
TM Eye's show at Brillobox on Sat., Jan 8, includes another Modey side project, drummer Paul Quattone's Expensive $hit, and Brooklyn's Zulus.
TM Eye with Expensive $hit and Zulus 9:30 p.m. Sat., Jan. 8. Brillobox, 4104 Penn Ave., Bloomfield. $6. 412-621-4900 or www.brillobox.net
