On the agenda today: “an indie-rock comic-book story about an energy drink made from fossilized human corpses.” That’s how one of the members of Griddle describes their third album Klimty Favela, a record which emerged out of a series of improvisational takes, and was created by splicing together “the good bits” from many different sessions, and adding percussion, synths, vocals, mellotron, etc. As such, “experimental” is the watchword here. There are certainly tunes, but there is some weird stuff going on, too.
But seriously, “fossilized human corpses.” I’ll quote from their myspace page:
It’s a comic book and an album all wrapped into one phantasmagoric whirl of mindfuck. Think of it as a people’s history of the Olympics, with chunks on dentistry and fossil fuel. Or a people’s history of dentistry, in which human corpses are compressed into an energy drink for athletes.
Um, yeah.
They say it is “recommended if you like: Flaming Lips, Fiery Furnaces, Super Furry Animals, or Dungen.” I agree strongly with this. As with all four of those bands, some songs really work for me – others do not. A number of tracks (“Pickett Fence Grille” for example) sound far too stuck in the 70s, with the falsetto voices, beats that almost sounds like it could be Cheap Trick, or vaguely spacey music that would fit on a Pink Floyd knock-off. When they do it well (as on “Porpoise Song”) I enjoy it, but it often feels overdone. And there are a few places where it just seems like they’re adding sounds and effects for no reason whatsoever except because they can.
That said, this was in large part my complaint about the new Flaming Lips album and everyone seems to disagree with me on that one. So I’ll break a little bit from my normal reviewing approach (only talking about bands I really like) to give a guarded recommendation. Griddle is never going to be one of my favorite bands, but they are pretty darn good at what they do, and certainly deserve some attention.
So, if you like the new Lips album, or the weirder Fiery Furnaces stuff (or any of the out-there prog experimental stuff), you should probably check out Griddle. If you (like me) are interested in this genre, but only in small doses and only when it doesn’t completely divorce itself from indie-pop, Klimty Favela has a few songs you’ll enjoy a lot but may not quite be your cup of tea.
Two songs that I particularly like:
Dr Becky BolantyTheme From the 1984 Olympic Games
And, I have to admit, the more I listen to this record the more I get into the weirder stuff. One example that I originally didn’t like at all, but have found myself returning to quite a bit:
City Made of Teeth II