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The unrepentantly silly antics of Fat Worm of Error, once a staple of the underground noise/improv scene seem to have fallen out of vogue recently, giving way to a darker vein of tomfoolery. This Messychusetts troupe, however, are knee deep in goofballs, and their colorful jammies are a welcome slap to the noggin when skulls, bones, and ghosts cloud one’s day. Like the best albums of its phylum, Pregnant Babies Pregnant with Pregnant Babies, the Worm’s debut long player, knows when to even its keel, and the album isn’t completely a lark; there’s some well-crafted gunk right below the surface, plain to hear for anyone willing to get their ears a little wet.

A fluorescent and unraveled relative of rock music is a core tenet in much of what Fat Worm of Error do, and as damaged as it may be, much of the band’s music contains enough clues and cues to keep it from folding in upon itself. But, like their confounding web design sense, the Fat Worm’s music delves deeply into a cartoonish and surreal psychedelia that’s not just surface noise. A playful sense of cat and mouse is in the air, with purposefully disjointed causes and effects, playful teasing, and confusing lines of unedited inner-brain logic. Pregnant Babies Pregnant with Pregnant Babies is a mess, undeniably, but not an unintentional one. A track like “Laissez-Faire is for the Birds” might seem to go in a million directions at once, but there’s a distinct trajectory to the song, and when a listener is able to get in tune with the way Fat Worm of Error play the game, things seem to fall into (and, of course, out of) place in a way that’s much easier to follow. It’s never very straightforward, and the band know well enough to make sure that most of their lines never do quite connect, but, like any foreign language, Pregnant Babies Pregnant with Pregnant Babies becomes far more accessible to those who know how to approach its syntax.

Whether groups like Fat Worm of Error harp purposefully on the annoying aspect of their approach is anyone’s guess, but this one’s like the rest, and there’s a pretty solid chance that anyone who encounters Pregnant Babies Pregnant with Pregnant Babies is going to find something that grates on their nerves. Perhaps the group’s more nonsensical fidgeting, or Jess Goddard’s whiny yelp, but one man’s trash is another man’s dinner, and where would the rainbow be if it didn’t contain any color? Silly rhetorical questions aside, perhaps forty minutes of it all is too much…or perhaps it’s not enough? Either way, Fat Worm of Error are a flavor not all will enjoy, but like pickles and ice cream, those who crave it will likely find themselves satiated by Pregnant Babies Pregnant with Pregnant Babies, and members of an odd group, indeed.

Fat Worm of Error at Amazon & Insound