Making sense of a song title like “Ham in a Wig” is about as futile as labeling the disjointed construction of Brooklyn trio Drome’s sound. But the two together? They just work. Add Chris Giorgione-directed video that’s just as bizarre and chaotic? And it’s like finding jesus. A ritualistic feast in a dank-looking basement involves berries and lime and pineapple and a mortar and pestle circling around the title ham. The three band members are present, two of them sheathed in monk-like hoods, heads down in ominous obedience, cutting the fruit and muddling them into a mysterious drink. The third, a mime-made-up, knife-wielding master of ceremonies, laughs maniacally, drinking the concoction, and eventually going off the proverbial deep end, all in a matter of one minute, thirty-two seconds.
The song itself, off Drome’s debut album, Pim Songs, released this past march on Safety Milk Records, is a deer trying to walk for the first time, tumbling all over itself and finding balance, and not in an unattractive way. Each chord struck, and each drumskin hit is like a jumpstart on a car battery, an electric flow of jarring energy that not only brings life, but also delicately maintains the mood, albeit an unnerving one. Joe Maruca’s almost jazz-powerviolence guitar is enough to make skin crawl, and the song’s construction is maddening, until you stop and realize how pinpointed and put-together everything is. Everything takes off and halts with an immaculate precision, zero to sixty in no time. It’s nothing short of impressive, until the final individual sound-off of every instrument, and the single credit arrives onscreen and you realize it’s all over.
