Inouk - No Danger
(Say Hey)
The debut full-length from this Brooklyn quintet boasts four guitarists, including the singing McMahons (Damon, 23, and his kid bro, Alexander, 21), lead axeman Ian Fenger and Jesse Johnson, who usually holds down bass duties. Drummer Glen Brasile rounds out the group. “What I Want” and the title track reminded me favorably of another brother-led band, Welsh glam rockers Gene Loves Jezebel. Inouk (enigmatically named after either an invisible childhood friend, French actress Anouk Aimee, or a bandmember’s dead grandmother), occasionally flash the glitz of a Broadway musical, with “Elected” bearing more than a titular similarity to late-period Alice Cooper. The swaying, sleepy prog suite “Search For The Bees” (the title track from their debut EP) is another winner, sort of like a ballsier Supertramp.
“With the Birds” pushes the quirky envelope even further over the edge and will have Elephant 6 fans (particularly of the Olivia Tremor Control and Neutral Milk Hotel variety) creaming in their jeans for more. The downhome, alt.country twang of “Somewhere In France” wears its John Darnielle stamp of (idiosyncratic) approval on its sleeve and wouldn’t be out of place on any of his recent Mountain Goats albums, and the get-up-and-dance toetapper, “Island” is a catchy pop gem that eventually morphs into a drunken Irish singalong.
Things fizzle out somewhat towards the end with the silly, Black 47-ish “Nudie Suit;” and the dreary, acoustic suicide note “Cherry Orchard” seems oddly out of sorts with its more upbeat surroundings. Still, the preceding good times prove to be a worthy introduction to this promising new band that’s worth keeping an eye on.
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