Art is rarely a province of the level-headed. Band mates Griffin Rodriguez (Blue Hawaii) and Chris Powell (Pow Pow) are no strangers to the strange and they seem to dip into the same stream of keen madness through which greats like Poe or Rossini waded their whole lives. From their earliest collaborations with the Philly outfit Need New Body, the two have been known for their bizarre melodies and absurdist ramblings.
On their third album as Icy Demons, the duo has teamed up with Tortoise guitarist Jeff Parker who has helped them perfect their wayward brand of patchwork indie to a science. Culling from late-sixties prog-rock and eighties pop, the album is wonderfully eclectic and fantastically weird. At once haunting and uplifting, each track is a musical grab bag of genres that haven’t been named.
Beginning with the disorienting “Buffalo Bill” the album takes a somber turn on its title track before ascending into the Sergio Mendes-esque “Summer Samba.” But the albums’ true opus does not come until the very end with “Crittin’ Down to Baba’s”, a masterful meld of Canterbury rock and gritty hip-hop that closes the album on the same strange note it began.
