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Samen

What the hell kind of name is öOoOoOoOoOo is probably something you think of when reading the name – but then you don’t realise the great thing about the name. The name is Chenille if you speak French like the band probably does or Caterpillar if you speak English – do you get it now? If not I will not explain it to you. It kind of looks artistic, and it appears clever from the outside and the music is as interesting as the naked artwork stuff that is one the cover and in the booklet.

French avant-garde is what we have here, a duo consisting of a guy and a gal and then they have the drummer from the cat-conspiracy band Pryapisme. This trio offers up a dozen tracks and 46 minutes of music that doesn’t seem to follow any conventional plan, it starts poppish to turn dark and metallic and it kind of goes from small hymns to more aggressive dark metallic stuff.

The sound and production is very strong, I like the vocals that shows a great range just like the songs that shows a lot of depth and variation. I would describe this as real creativity, it doesn’t really sound like much else and it is creative in its real sense – unlike most music released today. It is refreshing to hear bands with a healthy fantasy that actually uses that fantasy in their music making, like these guys do.

I would describe this as a really good album; it has many strong points and many very interesting angles from which they approach their songs. They hit the target well for most of the album but there are some misses as is to be expected when making music that isn’t following the regular conventions. But even with small misses I would say that this is a great album, the tracks are strong and we get many surprises throughout the album. I find it great to hear an unpredictable album, it isn’t every day we get one of those but now with this one we did.

Sure it is an album that requires some repeat listening to really get into, the first time isn’t the best as it grows for each time you play it. And for each new play through you notice something new, something you haven’t heard before and you will have to play it many times to stop finding new and amusing things while listening to this album. It sure is an impressive piece of work this one and I can clearly recommend it all you avant-gardists and music lovers out there.

Surely an album that kind of defies description and you need many more words than I can muster to really describe it, I think the silliness in I Hope You Slept Well and the interesting fourth track No Guts=No Masters are my favourites on this pretty great album. To me this debut album from the French caterpillars has to be one of this year’s most interesting albums of the year – and one of the best.

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