Russian Futurism was a turn of the (Nineteeth) century art movement characterized by the embracement of the modern world amenities that were taking shape in industrialized European nations. Most Futurists were, in turn, Fascists, but we shall disregard that for the point in hand. The movement stood in stark contrast to the previous Romantic emphasis on denouncing such technological forces. While I cannot directly testify to Mathew Hart's intentions in naming his solo project The Russian Futurists, one can easily surmise that they lay somewhere in the parallels between the band's characteristically modern sound and the tenants of said zeitgeist. For all you armchair music intellectuals out there, in our contemporary dichotomy, Romanticism might represent retro-pop.

Hart's debut album, The Method of Modern Love, is a confident collection of reverb and synthetic beats overlaying a fuzzy, yet altogether infectious production job. Lyrically, the album tends toward life's most enduring subject -- love -- and never veers from its set course; some songwriters have built their careers on discussion and dissection of the topic, so an album's worth isn't nearly as trying as one might expect. If the Magnetic Fields come to mind, you're on the right track. Not only do these songs mirror the subject matter of Stephin Merritt's work; they also share the same Cole Porter crutch in their consciously witty rhythmic patterns.

What makes this album work is the basic environment of simplicity in which it was constructed. The entire disc was recorded on an eight-track portastudio, rooting each song in a fairly fundamental production asethetic. Hart's use of eclectic instrumentation gives the disc an exceedingly fresh perspective, and he applies the polemic forces of ingenuity, simplicity and eccentricity to create a distinctly individualized sound that scores as many points for musical prescience as it does for melodic staying power.

One of the advantages of technological advancement in the music world is that it has allowed for singer/songwriters like Mathew Hart to write, record and produce outstanding pop albums without ever touching a drum set or even recruiting a band. If "post-pop" ever has a sonic christening, The Method of Modern Love and albums like it will stand at the head of the procession.