WRONG ANIMAL is one Lady Bee – I’m glad she chose a pseudonym to hide her humdrum real name – who in a former life played keyboards and provided vocals in Funk bands. Beyond that there is little I can tell you about the Lady other than ‘Little Kid Sometimes’ was put together in her own studio. The Funk background makes sense but on her debut solo effort the rhythmic flow is put to more downtempo effect.
Initially.
Aside from possessing a natural affinity with beats what WRONG ANIMAL is particularly adept at doing is wrong-footing the listener by using her album as an excuse to go off on a number of musical excursions. Just when the opening trio of tracks delight with their soulful, voiceless take on the haunting sounds of Boards of Canada, or Aphex Twin in his Ambient mode, up pops the sublime ‘In The City’ that is strongly reminiscent of Martina Topley-Bird and as good as anything that came out of Bristol in the heyday of Brit Trip Hop. Yes that good.
So now I’m surprised but not confused. Which is why I just knew that ‘Better Off Dead’ would sound like an updated track from Can’s ‘Future Days’, that the title track would be a scuzzy Punk song and that ‘Don’t You Stop’ would come over all New Wave. Did I mention that my precognition also took into account the snotty f*** you Funk of ‘Mighty Confusing’ with its spiky confession “I sat there with my tits out”?
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It’s a curse you know, not a gift, this foresight malarkey.
Alright so WRONG ANIMAL can mix it up but is she any good? Well, yes actually. ‘Little Kid Sometimes’ will confound expectations but more importantly it delivers on its promise of being a musical bag of liquorice allsorts. If the album has some kind of companion it would be Tricky’s ‘Maxinquaye’ but that comparison only tells half the story. Indeed it’s difficult to see how she will fit into the compartmentalised world of the music industry and the kind of fan she’ll attract.
Apparently Lady Bee is putting together a band to take ‘Little Kid Sometimes’ out on the road so it’ll be interesting to see and hear how her unique hybrid of styles will play out across a live set and just who comes away as satisfied as myself with WRONG ANIMAL’S refusal to be pigeon-holed.
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