5 out of 5

Produced by: Goon Moon

Label: Suicide Squeeze

Blissfully weird, Goon Moon was (although we could hope for ‘is…’) the most fortunate alignment of shared interests, timing, and, like, a hot-ass, conflated, massive fart of inspiration that churned out an EP and album’s worth of material, though for my bang-ed buck, this 30 minute extended play is denser and more rewarding than any ten albums on the rack.

And let’s step back a second: a guy from Marilyn Manson; a noted stoner rock producer / performer.  Does that team-up make you imagine moments of psychedelia, seguing to  jazzy improv, to krautrock, to punk, to damn-near power pop?  Sure, you can hear some QOTSA harmonizing during the rare vocal moments, and the further recruitment of Hella’s Zach Hill’s drums accounts for the blitzkrieg snare work, but seriously, this disc defies all expectations in general, and goes beyond that when you consider the known output of its creators.

If the above descriptor fearfully sounds like a mass of indulgence, I’m not just praising oddity: I’ve Got A Brand New Egg Layin’ Machine fits together seamlessly.  You’ll notice the cycle I mentioned goes vaguely from deconstructed to more constructed, and that’s definitely part of the m.o.: It’s like one long buildup to some incredibly radio friendly pop songs, with the permutations of style along the way precision-hewed to allow room for expression, but no excess wandering, which is how that 30 minutes packs in an intense amount, but without coming across as just a free-for-all.

These two dudes, friends, found common music interests and some free time and produced outright gold.