Upon first listen, this album sounded like a lot of random squelches and beepings and non-sequiturs. Not terribly enjoyable when I went in expecting a fairly pop record. Further listens helped me to realize the Singmaster solution to the band's cube: The band's bastardized, lop-sided grooves became infectious; off-pitch vocals melded with free jazz horns to somehow become perfectly in tune; the halves of the band playing two different songs regrew their corpus callosum and were one. All in all, it was a rad experience.
The brief debut (7 seconds shy in one regard but right on in the other on my "10 Songs or Half an Hour For a Full-length" measuring stick) from Hi Red Center is decidely mathy, overtly intelligent, and pretty dang enjoyable. I'd like to say some things about the songs from the album but first I'm going to say Deerhoof. The comparison is inevitable: The bands' palette of sounds make my Venn diagram look basically like a circle. Hi Red Center doesn't have Satomi but Deerhoof doesn't have a trombonist. Still, pretty close. Do not fear a rote 'Hoof rip though, friends, for that is certainly not what you'll be recieving. If anything, HRC one-up the 'Hoof. Deerhoof has always rode the juxtaposition of pop versus chaos while HRC successfully blend the two (for the most part).
Openers "Red/Green" and "Captain Waltz" burst forth with high intensity and quickly establish the rollicking, hin-und-her surge that the band is obviously fond of; contrasting just enough unease with just enough straight-forwardness. "Evildoer" is more parabolic in structure; rising to frenzy in its core but retaining smooth edges. Longest track "Hollow Buttons" is strangely moving and beautiful. Downtempo for and phasing for its entire length, the song's got barely the required amount of vocalization to keep it from being instrumental; vocals and strange, reaching guitar figure linking to form its center. This rockets into the squeaky "Alarm Will Sound" which leads into the short, stuttering "Eureka" which in turn is a bridge to the rising "Famous Hero." The band then winds the album down with their two best tracks: the wonderful vibes-and-bass groove of "Oskar" and the superb closer "Bunnies Are Full Of Magic." "Bunnies..." is content to explore spare, slinky bass and trombone parts for well over half its length before the band plops its most properly musical and enjoyable creation into the last bit of the album. All the instruments come together, rising in unison to form a shanty/calliope closing moment.
Hi Red Center certainly deliver the damaged goods on this one. The band establishes its tilting voice from the get-go. Sure, it's a little short, a smidge sonicly (though not stylistically) derivative, a bit uniform, but they do what they do very well. Give this band a few years. They'll be a name.
