A supergroup (of sorts) featuring Duane Denison (Tomahawk / Jesus Lizard), Alexander Hacke (Einsturzenden Neubaten) and Brian Kotzur (Silver Jews) that resembles none of its constituent parts. The album is a foray into instrumental weirdness that I suspect evolved from group improvisations (as there are five improvised pieces on here) that covers Lynch-ian soundtrack pieces, stripped down prog rock and stuff that sounds like other bands ranging from Tomahawk to The Cure. It’s pretty difficult to put a snappy label on this but I imagine that would make the members very happy. It’s not overtly futuristic (with a few songs having a decidely 80’s feel to them) but it’s not sliding along the rails of a pre-determined genre either, preferring to explore strange little niches that offer themselves as a result of one or the other’s instrumental talents. As a result you have an album that is unlikely to grace the average party mix but still offers up smooth little pieces of confectionery like Neon, Waves or Voices. It’s also an album that fulfills its Ipecac credentials admirably (ie: its a weird rock orphan that would make little sense on another label) and will no doubt make die hard label fans like myself quite happy in exploring more avenues that branch away from the rotten corpse of mainstream music.
Kim Monaghan
