The only thing I know about Police Academy 6 is that their name derives from arguably the worst of the Police Academy films and that they claim they are a six piece of lesbians that play jazz-funk and were active in the 70s. The latter is clearly bullshit, but it's clever bullshit. This is their self-titled debut, and it's full of dreamy nostalgia with electronic glo-fi, not unlike that chillwave craze of '09. Take the atmosphere of Washed Out, the dance-moves of Toro y Moi, and the smoothness of The Weeknd's House of Balloons mixtape and you've got yourself Police Academy 6.
The album flows on that sound, but drifts off into different directions through each track. The opener "Wanting Something" is certainly a highlight, with it's fuzzy callback memory of a vacant 80s disco club. This track is followed by "Fill In The Blanks" and "Icarus", which are nice little nostalgia pieces of warm analog over distant hip-hop beats, but "The Chills" is when problems start to erupt. This track sadly ends up painting a picture of what the entire album is all about. It starts out with a beautifully nostalgic wisp, before getting sucked into this cheap electronic swirl that doesn't do the song justice.
That sadly is the fate of this piece of work, great sounds that are at times ruined by cheap sounding electronica. It's split into a memory of both chilled excellence and cheap mediocrity. "Crushin", "Waiting', and "Back Again" are prime examples of the latter, while "Ayandeh" sounds like Panda Bear on a new age hip-hop codeine pill. That sound will probably end up being one of the best all year. Ultimately it sucks for an album to have that skip mentality, but nonetheless there are still some fine individual tracks here that show definite signs of hope in the future for this mysterious little band. Excuse me, large band full of lesbian jazz-funkers.
[Police Academy 6 Bandcamp]
[Buy Police Academy 6 from AMDISCS]
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