We played Lemonade Kangaroo on BCD a while back and I remember thinking “I like that” but then what did I do about it? Nothing. Not because it wasn’t good but something shiny went past and I just forgot about it. So the reappearance of Lemonade Kangaroo was a pleasant thing. What was even more pleasant was the blurb attached to the EP. Normally you get either earth shattering blurb ie: “Nothing has ever been like this or will be again. We invented music and when we die music will be dead and you may as well be too. Also we have girlfriends.” Or you get surreal rubbish littered with laboured analogies ie: “This music flows through your mind like liquid genitals, caressing the ears of the listener like Scotty caresses the knobs of the teleporter in T.O.S.”

Personally I hate both of those approaches (unless it’s me writing it, in which case I’ll probably turn out something brilliant. Again.) so I was chucklified to find this little bit of magic attached to the bottom of the “Quirk Like A Mice” EP :

“Some of these beats have literally been beaten.

I digitalized myself, by inverting my aura next to a WIFI hotspot in a graveyard, and traveled back to my own computer with a baseball bat. I beat some of the WAV’s in the face, but left some because they were already pretty.

I manually converted the WAV’s into MP3′s, then left the internet, returning to my physical form. Afterwards I went to Nando’s.”

Now this combined with the surreal robotic intro of Ducktion put me in an expectant frame of mind, so when the happy, fizzy synths and wonky ragga 2 step of “For True” came in I breathed a sigh of relief, because I really wanted to like this. And I do. Cheerful plinky-plonky melody lines and a simplistic approach to pleasing the listener all achieved in three minutes. Nice.

The rest of the EP is very bitty. Short sketches more than anything and if I have one complaint it’s that I was hoping for something a little more substantial. However, you can download the whole thing for free so it’s not like you can complain about value for money. And while it may not be the most cohesive or essential release, it is bursting with charm and an idiosyncratic approach that a fair few producers could learn from.

http://soundcloud.com/lemonadekangaroo/sets/quirk-like-a-mice

Kim Monaghan

About Kim Monaghan

Kim is reviews editor here at Sitting Now, Overlord at http://daddytank.co.uk, and member of the shadowy League of Cat Fanciers: Birmingham division.

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