Cerberus Shoal - Bastion of Itchy Preeves
(North East Indie)
Rising from gently tingling windchimes to a full-on Hari Krishna tambourine choir assault, the strident clarion call of "Grandsire" opens yet another "difficult listening hour," as Laurie Anderson used to call them, from these prolific Maine hippy commune-ists. Their eighth full length picks up where last year's Chaiming the Knoblessone left off. In fact, its pre-Knoblessone recording began in 2001, marking it as the initial recordings of the "new" Cerberus Shoal line-up that was consummated in 2000 after the Tarpigh guys left.
The oriental percussive vibe throughout "A Cloud No Bigger than a Man's Head" merges with the harmonium-styled bed supporting a choir of angels (actually Erin Davidson and Colleen Kinsella) chanting their way through a penny-whistle arcade and assorted chock-a-block percussive effects, Morse codes and the sound of party-goers in full flight speaking in tongues, not necessarily human... not necessarily English. It's an all-out sonic assault somewhere along the road to unlimited self-devotion where The Fool meets Hapshash and (his amazing techni) coloured (dream) coat. Oriental gypsy music forms the background to "Bogart the Change," a theatrical dance-cum-Exorcism as (if) performed by the traveling minstrels from Ingmar Bergman's Seventh Seal. It all culminates in a key/tempo change that sounds like someone turned the record player off without removing the stylus and reportedly brought a tear of laughter to the bloodshot eyes of the elusive Captain Van Vliet.
The gals open the two-part "Me and My Dead Head" suite under the influence of helium-you can literally hear and feel them inhaling on "Baby Gal" as the guys sing their parts through Jew's harps over the usual penny-whistles, blocks, xylophones, and assorted percussives, culminating in a pant-shitting monotonic Witch's coven chant/shreik. But the weirdest track of all may be the second part, "Train Car Nursery." Don't worry, I think it's supposed to sound like it's time to break out the laser head cleaner, and perhaps that's what the "dead head" refers to? More theatrical chanting on this escapee from the soundtrack to Tim Burton's "The Nightmare Before Christmas" reminds us that something nasty is, indeed, in the Nursery.
Fans of this challenging collective's recent material will thoroughly enjoy "Itchy Preeves," with its theatrical, absurdist lyrics set to oriental gypsy music (think Transylvanian Kabuki). Their live performances (throughout the US in April and May) will give you an opportunity to experience these pieces in a proper setting, as they get somewhat lost in translation in the CD format. Catch them if you can.
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