Zukanican - E 5number EP
(Pickled Egg)
Leicester’s Pickled Egg has provided us with some of the quirkiest noisepop of the new century, from the pop-metal clang of Tokyo’s Pop-Off Tuesday to the wonderfully avant jazz squawkings of Neutral Milk Hotel offshoot, Bablicon, featuring former Hotelier Jeremy Barnes masquerading as Marta Tennae. Like some of our other favorite indie labels, England’s Woronzow and Australia’s Camera Obscura, Nigel Turner and company recently passed the magic 50th release mark with this limited edition 10” EP (Cat. No. Egg 51) and it’s a little gem.
The abrasively aggressive, yet eerily catchy opener “Somb” combines theremin, bubbling electronics a la Ozric Tentacles and shards of metallic sheet metal (courtesy guest soundsculptist, Harry Sumnall of fellow Liverpudlian psychsters, Lazily Spun) that immediately slices the jugular and puts the listener on notice that this is certainly not a collection of circus music for the kiddies. Harry’s brother Tom’s rolling bass drags “Medallion” out from under its heavily percussive metallic environs (the band’s dueling drummers, James Pagella and Domino Nagasaki are key ingredients in shaping the group’s bottom-heavy, rhythmic sonics) and imparts a pleasant, jazzy vibe to the proceedings. Side one’s closer, “Lack of Signage” tosses some Spanish trumpet (from Phil Lucking) and various brass utterances (from ex-Spiritualized hornman, Ray Dickaty) into the mix and is not far removed from a chance meeting between Bablicon and Neutral Milk on that proverbial dissecting table, with liberal doses of horny avant weirdness (think Norway’s Origami Republika artists collective, V. Majestic or Spaceheads) sprinkled throughout. ‘Tis a groovy sound collage, mon!
The flip side features the Crimsonesque syncopation and motorik space sounds of “Pay Never” (kudos once again to dual drummers Pagella and Nagasaki and funky bassist Sumnall, who will have you “fahren auf der Autobahn” at neck-breaking speeds with the wind in your hair and a smile on your face). It even ends with some heavily-treated, distorted laughter! The bubbling, shearing white noise of “Moonstew” will have you moonwalking to the beat of a different drum, and the EPs closing “Dust from A Goose” is a shitstorm of a sexy, sax skronkfest that sounds like Coltrane stumbling, mid-trip, into a Sun Ra Arkestra jam session. Definitely not for the feint of heart, which is exactly what we expect from Pickled Egg. E 5number won’t disappoint the adventurous fans of avant jazzy noisepop.
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