Where to being... It starts like any record would, with a couple of guitars dueling for your attention but, twelve seconds in, things take a rather bizarre turn. They alter, contort to a different angle, as if your ears have been turned to a slightly different frequency. Then there's the voice, chirping away not unlike a small chipmunk. It's a hell of a way to open an album, but gives you a vague idea of how the next fifty mintues are going to be. This is Deerhoof and all they stand for. They have an uncanny ability to challenge you, to make you think about what you're listening to (whether by accident or design) and are certainly never predictable.

Formed in 1994, these guys have been around for a while and forged a reputation for being just plain different. It always amazes me that records like this get released - it this modern age of marketing and targeting your audience, how do you market this lot? No surprises though that this record is being released on the label which sprung up from the All Tomorrows Parties festival.



At their most accessible, they remind me of Stereolab, the gentle high lyrics and rhymic guitars, but other times they sound like nothing else I've heard before. Pieces of the music echo other artists and bands, but they just put them together in a completely unique way. The keyboard part in Running Thoughts is straight from Rick Wakeman's repitoire and the opening riff from Twin Killers staight from Gang of Four before it descendes into something completely different whereas Wrong Time Capsule is pure prog-rock, clocks in at under three minutes and has more ideas than a Yes album.

As you can possibly guess by now, I'm finding it hard to find any classification that does this band/album justice. Alternative; certainly, rock; it places, pop; every now and again, folk; maybe. Perhaps I should create a genre just for these guys...

I love this album and it's one of those releases where I'm just struggling to describe what it's like to listen to this record. It sounds fresh and yet familiar, the recording sounds like it's been done in someone's front room during the 70's - I'd find it hard to believe that any digital equipment was involved in making this record until it was mastered onto the physical CD.

If I was to make one complaint, it's that the lyrics make a Mars Volta album read like John Grisham novel. I can hardly make out what's being said and when I do, I couldn't possible begin to understand what it means! But very much like the Cocteau Twins it's not what's being said in the main, but the way the voice acts as another intrument. The vocals never grate, they float and augment the music that runs through the album. In fact the songs pretty much run into one another, so it's sometimes hard to hear when one song ends and another beings. It feels as though its structured more like a classical recording, with separate movements collecting a number of songs together.

This album just won't click with everyone, I can hear some of my friends calling it pretenious bullshit as I type this. But if you want to hear something different, if you want to leave your musical comfort zone, then this is the record to listen to. Unique.

Pictures from ATP Recordings.

Listen to the album stream over at The Runners Four website.

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