Song, by Toad

Ooh, interesting interesting.  And really rather weird.  Erik Gundel introduced himself to me as ‘that guy from Motel Motel’ and whilst I liked a lot of their songs, I find this vastly more intriguing.

With this sort of strange stuff the sequencing is always crucial, and in this case it is executed really well.  We’re gently lulled in with a spot of unthreatening instrumentalism in the form of Turkulent Indigo.  Then Birdy sort of hints at where the rest of the EP is going, but is still rather a tame version of the music language in which this release communicates.

The centrepiece of the EP is Lake on My Roof, and this is really rather weird, but nevertheless in a friendly and melodic and welcoming sort of way, before Head of Ribbon just smacks you in the chops with the strangeness.  It sounds like some sort of sonically-based puzzle from late 70s sci-fi film where the hero is trying to escape from a dizzying chamber of lights.  Gundel doesn’t even bother with lyrics, just a misbehaving, synthesised cousin of a church organ breathing in and out at irregular intervals.  An oddly, don’t ask me why, it isn’t shit.  Closing things out is the peace offering of Antacids Love Song, slightly quirky of lyric, but otherwise quite a straight-up song.

And that’s the odd contradiction of this EP.  Depending on what he’s sick of reading about in reviews, Gundel could easily be exhasperatedly saying ‘Well if you listen to it, not a lot of it is actually all that weird’.  And he’d be right.  Then again, not an awful lot of this is played straight, either.  Of the five songs only two, perhaps, could be described as plain vanilla pop songs, and even then you’d be stretching a point to do so.

Either way, this is a challenging and a rewarding listen, perfectly put together and unsettlingly compelling, if you know what I mean.  I wouldn’t say that I love all of it, but it’s definitely one of the most engaging things I’ve heard in ages.

Erik Gundel – Lake on My Roof

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Erik Gundel on MySpace – you’re going to have to message him on MySpace to buy the EP, but I promise you, it’s worth it.