This album should be celebrated as a comeback. After all, it has been years since TV Pow's last release of a manufactured CD, and quite some time since their last release period (if one excludes the 2004 CD-R by Television Power Electric, a slightly different project). And the title (in full: TV Pow Presents Michael Hartman, Todd A. Carter and Brent Gutzeit as TV Pow), as tongue-in-cheek as it can be, makes sense. It provides reassurance that this is indeed TV Pow -- on first listen, you might be tempted to doubt it. First of all, although computers still play a key role in the trio's sound, physical instruments abound: piano, guitar, organ, drum set, and various percussion (that is, if you believe the credits; after all, it could be all laptop magic in this post-Señor Coconut day and age). These instruments change not only the sound palette of the group, but its whole approach. The shorter pieces almost feel like songs, with a certain jazz spirit and light post-rock feel -- the Necks come to mind. On longer tracks (the 27-minute Sweating Just Sitting Here marking an extreme), one thinks of the No-Neck Blues Band and the like. There are percussion jams, quiet abstract improv episodes, and rhythmical regroupings, not to mention the odd melodic moment. Permeating through it all is the same experimental drive that was setting TV Pow apart from the other laptop groups six or seven years earlier. In other words, TV Pow Presents is not what you may be expecting from this group, but then again it is. And being a surprising and captivating album in any case, it comes highly recommended. ~ François Couture, Rovi

1		The International Brigade
2		Maybe It's the Alternator
3		I'm Working on it Right Now
4		Chicago Underground Laptop Trio
5		Sweating Just Sitting Here