If you can think back to the last time you chased a slightly tipsy spirit through a densely packed forest, you can imagine catbandcat’s new EP, ‘I Don’t Know Much About Rocks’. The EP begins with ‘Fork and Knife’ a cacophony of wobbly sound effects creating a bed on which a beautiful, piercing voice lays. The song has a hauntingly melancholy atmosphere, blending classical strings with a voice that tiptoes around a wonky synth.
The EP then falls into its title track, a gentle, lilting tune with an other-worldly mood. A strange static hovers just above the melody, only allowing snippets of vocals to drip through. It’s a bewitching tune, more than deserving of its spot as title track.
They have a healthy degree of experimentation mid way through, as is seen in ‘Giv£ M£ Mon£y’ where the eccentricity of Cosmo Sheldrake meets the electronic beats of SOPHIE, a combination that may sound strange if it wasn’t found in this EP, where it sits quite perfectly.
The same can be said for ‘East Wing’ which, despite being completely different with the waltzing rhythms of a showtune, has the same unnerving undertones as the rest of the EP. You have to imagine at this point that the spirit you are chasing has developed a degree of confidence, taunting you with each step, spinning delicately around you.
This giddiness spills over into ‘Creature of the Sea’, a tune that floats through a wave of wonky accordion, swimming smoothly towards ‘Crack the Crack, Pt.2’. This is a tune that creeps towards the end of the EP in an ambient Aphex Twin style, wringing the last few notes out of the band’s vast array of instruments.
We can only think that by the end, the spirit must be laying, like a child does after a party, in blissful wonder, having been launched from the static glow of space to the murky depths of the sea, tired by their evening yet yearning for more. catbandcat will give you this experience, just let them lead you.
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