“No straight paths through Ogg Ma Gogg’s Bog” – nor indeed through any track on this album. This lyric is taken verbatim from the opening, and title track of the album, Girl With Basket Of Fruit.
Experimental is an oft misused term when it comes to bands. Is it simply something rocky that’s incorporating an odd element? Is it a rap artist who’s trying something new like Kendrick Lamar and his jazzy instrumentals?
No, by rights it should be something altogether stranger, that defies convention.
As an opening track, Girl With Basket Of Fruit’s only similarity I can draw is that the vocals sound a BIT like LCD Soundsystem. It’s fast, confusing, the lyrics are all over the place – ranging from jerky spoken word nonsensical passages to sex-filled melodic wails. Overall, the opening track sounds positive; weird but fun. But don’t expect that to last.
Not keen to sit on one tone for even a track, It Comes Out As A Joke is dark, threatening and discordant. Vocals are nearly incoherent as they’re run through a complex loop and FX set up. Filled with tribal sounding indigenous instruments and ululating false vocals amidst the general madness, it’s treading a fine line between needlessly complex, and virtuoso arrangement.
A later track that does dark and moody much better however, comes in the form of The Wrong Thing. Sounding as raw and brutal (and even vocally similar to a point) to tracks found on Trent Reznor’s ‘A Downward Spiral’ this poetic and more structured track grabs the attention far better than most songs on the album.
Were the band based in the UK as opposed to the USA, they’d definitely be branded as hipsters. In place of a bass is a cello, guitars and keyboards replaced by mandolins, harmoniums and other weird and wonderful ideas. If this isn’t quite explaining it, the fact that a former member left to focus on her ‘vegan boutique’ should convince you.
As with all truly experimental art forms, you have to ask the question of whether the ‘artist’ is truly achieving what they set out to. In the incomprehensibly weird Amargi Ve Moo, the string and brass arrangement might be on point; however, the vocals consist of what can only be described as someone running their finger over their lips, as if to entertain a baby. Honestly, if you’ve got a better sound for it, please let me know.
Despite the name, Pumpkin Attack on Mommy and Daddy might be the closest track to another genre of music on the track. Ignoring the lyric “Is that you? My prize pig? I’m sorry I left you out at pasture to die” (yes, it’s verbatim again) the track isn’t totally alien. You might have to go to some of the stranger raves on the circuit to find a live performance of something like this, but the track’s contagious bassline and growling synth make for something more ‘musical’ than what has come before.
As the second most listenable track, Normal Love is unfortunately tucked away at the end of the album, sadly it can do little to redeem the work that came before. There’s nothing actually ‘wrong’ with the songs…it’s just that the vocals, instruments and overall arrangement don’t sound like they belong together.
The main sticking point with the album isn’t the madness – far from it. It’s that somehow, as an experimental act, there’s nothing too surprising from Xiu Xiu here. It’s not that it should be shocking, and I’d be remiss in saying I was just desensitised to it, music isn’t like on-screen violence…at least in my opinion.
There’s nothing that’s hugely exciting on the album, and if experimentation can’t bring something that’s not only unusual but actually new, then it’s failing. Maybe it’s time for Xiu Xiu to pick an actual genre after nearly 20 years, and stick to it.
Author: Steve, Chiswick store
