Two years ago, the brothers formed the French Horn Rebellion and released its first, self-titled album within one year.,”Stretching the limitations of traditional instrumentation is all in the family for French Horn Rebellion. The electro pop duo—playing Mad Planet, 533 E. Center St., Saturday—is composed of brothers Robert and David Perlick-Molinari.

Two years ago the brothers formed French Horn Rebellion and released its first, self-titled album within one year.

"After working in post-production on commercials, I felt like live music was being replaced by computers," Robert said. "My brother and I went about making music by using those tools we hate to love, it's sort of a tragic paradox."

Robert does the programming, keyboards, French horn and lead vocals in the band. The combination of electronic music and the French horn might sound a bit out of place, but it's just another texture the brothers use to define their own sound. The horn also happens to be the instrument of choice for Robert.

"There's no other instrument I'd rather play besides the French horn," Robert said. "I like how the French horn can be delicate like the woodwinds, but powerful like the brass instruments."

Milwaukee natives, Robert is currently a senior at Northwestern University, Evanston, Ill. His brother David is living in Brooklyn, New York.

Even though Northwestern is in the heart of Chicago, Robert said French Horn Rebellion feels more of a connection to New York City and Milwaukee.

"Northwestern has an interesting scene," Robert said. "It's a great musical school to create professional musicians but kids kind of shut themselves in to study. As much as we have a faithful fan base at Northwestern, it's hard to get the kids to show up."

After mixing backing tracks with his brother for the Brooklyn band MGMT to play at live shows, Robert said he was inspired to start French Horn Rebellion.

"I saw MGMT live and it was so bad but everyone had so much fun," Robert said. "It was non-traditional with and I realized that I could do that."

French Horn Rebellion's relationship with MGMT continued as David co-produced MGMT's EP before the band was signed to Columbia Records.

Production style is something French Horn Rebellion has developed by working with artists like MGMT. Despite only having one album, the self-produced band boasts polished material most bands envy. Based on its previous works, French Horn Rebellion's next release should be an interesting progression.

"We're going to release another album," Robert said. "This time we're trying to incorporate some new harmonics. The first album was creating some fun textures mixed with hooky hooks. It was harmonically simple and I created interesting sounds out of the tools I had. The old was more rock-centric and the new one is going to be more rhythmically based."

Look for French Horn Rebellion to mix an equal amount of its new and old material at the show on Saturday.

French Horn Rebellion performs with The Meeples at Mad Planet Saturday at 9 p.m. The show is 21 and over to get in. For more information check out www.mad-planet.net.

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