3 out of 5

Produced by: Miss Pussycat

Label: Skin Graft Records, Rhinestone Records

As long as you know what you’re getting, here, it’s pretty fun.  In fact, the opening piece – Free Guitar Lessons For Animals – is some genius outsider art, striking that balance between innocence and self-awareness for which a lot of attempted quirk aims but misses.  The subsequent “songs” are hit or miss, dependent on how songy they are, and the closer crosses the line into too self-aware with its hip-hop sample and, I dunno, more drunken narrative.  But again: know what you’re going to get.

Which is: a recording of entertainer Miss Pussycat’s puppet show from (at least in part, I think), John Peel sessions.  If you’re familiar with Quintron, awareness that the duo have paired up will give you some further footing as to where to set your expectations.  Otherwise be forewarned that this is not traditional music – it’s a narrative about animals being taught guitar by veterinarian DJ Cardboard, and then told to “go start a band.”  Alas, the witch in the forest has cast a spell which prevents the animals from finding a drummer, leaving them with the choice of either using a drum machine or… killing the witch.  High-pitched voices, rhythmless guitar strums, a wah-wah using tiger; it’s all here, and it’s pretty damned glorious.  And when the animals start to jam, yeah, its oddly catchy.  Once you’ve tuned in to the wavelength, this story – all captured on the first track – is fantastic.

Thereafter we get what might be the compositions of the animal band, and they’re okay.  Lacking a narrative hook, the music is hardcore wandery.  The electro buzz of The Men With A Million Records is pretty good, and Underwater Dance Club sounds exactly like that.

The closing track is another story, a recording of The Halloween Puppet Show.  This is when it all becomes a bit too self-aware and switches gears too many times to earn our attentions in the way Free Guitar Lessons does.  Oh well.

Significantly weird; definitely not something I frequently put on, but always better and more fun than I remember.