the mink lungs - the better button
completey different to the other arena releases i have heard so far.
off the wall surreal indie rock with plenty of dashes of humour amongst the sonic trickery.
flashbacks to dukes of stratosphere (xtc's sgt pepper homage) matched with lo-fi song structures.
the variety in the sounds are too far off the scale for the standard indie rock release for many folks to get their heads round .. but somehow this makes it all extremely listenable.
from the opening fuzztone excess of 'i sell love', an infectious opener, this sets the scene well for the next few tracks which follow on in fast catchy fashion, all adding little extra sounds/random samples to the sonic envelop - but making sure that they dont lose sight of some gorgeous melodies - highlight being 'watch yourself' with its far off distant slide guitar in the distance from a acoustic strumalong stylings. and, to find suitable words for the splendour that is 'think of me' a personal favourite for the last few months .. the sonic phasing of the whole lo-fi production is something to behold and shows just what can be done on a restricted budget.
ideas and melodies cost nothing.
but, dont let these opening tracks fool you, there are some sharp left turns as the album progresses, with several tracks making the listener hit the 'next' button. 'synthesizer baby' being the prime example. a little research indicates that this track is just a few splinters of tapes/noises that have been spliced together .. well it sounds like it, while certain sections work .. the bably tunes violin scratching sound just becomes grating .. next ..
luckily though the bad'uns are few and far between and for the most part this is the aural equivalent of watching several films, rolling news channels, teenage fanclubs/pavement videos with sergeant pepper on in the background, at a party where everyone wants to showoff their latest cool indie rock discovery ..
a breathe of fresh air ..