Acoustic hooks and brilliantly understated drum shuffles, looping samples and crunching breaks combine to place the art of songwriting according to Adam Pierce in the midst of an odd but engaging context.
The veteran drummer’s sixth album is laced with heady Spanish guitar playing that’s twinned with off-beats and threads of electronic noise. Experimental is not quite the word: there’s a mashing up of styles but there’s also a long list of collaborators. That’s unusual for a MICE PARADE album, but not as weird as the eponymous title. It’s not a fresh start, it’s more of a surreal ‘Greatest Hits’ - a showcase of the spectrum of styles that Pierce has allowed to influence his Mice Parade work to date, plus a few new elements (the flamenco playing being the most striking).
The ambient techno pulse of ‘Tales Of Las Negras’ is fuelled by 'real' percussion - thickened with cymbals; hi-fidelity stop-start patterning, subtle chiming percussion and celestial vocals - the track is never allowed to sink into a sub-diatonic trance, but still feels like it’s from somewhere deep in the ocean
‘The Last Ten Homes’ contains a cryptic narrative, and a handclapping, acoustic rhythm Each line of the chorus is made from several vocal samples over odd high muted guitar/analogue noises, everything seamlessly evolving into ‘Snow’, where the pulse does begin to drift a little, if you’ll excuse the pun. Soundscapes enclose fractured 4/4 songs and the more abstract elements of these crafted compositions act like strobes, sonic trailers left by the folk-based nucleus of each track.
Looping slow motion snores open one tune but it’s the child’s vocals and (very possibly) lyrics that give the song it’s innocent beauty. The song gradually evolves with a subtle brush-stroke drum pattern, and is entitled ‘Double Dolphins On The Nickel’. Aaaahh.
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‘Swing’ is also childlike, though more disjointed, snapshots of memories and split-second glances from early childhood: the delicate song fades out in a gorgeous and complex meditative state
Instrumental ‘Circle None’ features more intricate guitar playing, tom-toms and bottle percussion that makes a gentle barrel organ sound - again the deep chill makes you lose sense of place and track of time, if only momentarily.
‘The Nights After Fiction’ is the grand finale, built on the metallic grind of a beat that fades in and out over a solid bass drum kick and another superb display of atmospheric guitar brilliance. Rolling drums start and stutter, and finally there’s a rush before the opening line – it’s one hell of an introduction. It gives you the awkward tension between two one-time bosom pals, and then takes the breath from your body in waves and rushes. A sonic warp from the keyboard is levered across a crazy guitar rhythm and suddenly it’s got the dip and sudden swerve of a rollercoaster.
It’s a magnificent ending to a lovely and truly innovative record.
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