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Review: 'VAN ALLEN BELT, THE'
'Superpowerfragilis'   

-  Album: 'Superpowerfragilis' -  Label: 'Nonstop Everything Records'
-  Genre: 'Pop' -  Release Date: '2010'

Our Rating:
It's rare for an album to leave me feeling perplexed or baffled. Annoyed, irritated, disappointed, exhilarated, depressed, angry, bored, happy, emotional, frustrated, tense, entertained, relieved, cheated.... all of these are fairly common responses. I can generally get a sense of where an artist's coming from, or what an album is aiming to achieve, even if its creators aren't working within the confines of any specific genre, or are stridently attacking all parameters of classification. Based on these premises, I then - intentionally or otherwise - form an opinion on the degree of success the album represents, and whether or not I like it.

This album is poppy, but it's also completely crazy. Not in a wide-eyed, zany sort of a way, but there's something very odd about TVAB's approach. From the swelling cinematic prog soundscape of opener 'Out To Lunch' - which contrasts with the controlled and slightly detached-sounding vocals, and works to strange and perhaps unexpected success - this is an album of curious juxtapositions. Jono Podmore of CAN, who produced their previous album described the work as 'a complex and stylish psychedelic journey through pop history. Like the mamas and the papas joined Crass in the Wu Tang's yard.' This pretty much sums up the incongruous hybridity of their style to a tee: they're every bit as far out of this world as the band's name suggests.

'The Way You Look' is classic sixties pop, down to a Phil Spector-like production, but the lyrics that swipe at religious hypocrisy with lines like 'yes you have bullets that will change our fucking water to wine' and 'you think there's only room in this world for one god / so you keep sex out of your precious little princess' class / and virgins everywhere are ending up with cocks in their ass' strike a rather obtuse angle against the grain of the music.

'1997' has a shrillness that could give Florence Welch a run for her money, but it's saved by the sweeping orchestral arrangement that gives the track a vintage pop feel (apart from in the middle eight when it goes a bit crazy). There are numerous moments of sweep crafted chamber pop, and the innovative and crafted arrangements mean that there's never a dull moment. Unexpected moments and unusual flourishes abound, and stylistic experimentation is something they're clearly not afraid of ('Camp Newton' almost defies genre-based description, but Psychedelic Post-Rock Pop might give you an idea, while West-end Showtunes and Cabaret seem to be as much the inspiration for 'The Status Quo (A Line Dance)' as anything more overtly country in origin), but everything is so perfectly balanced that it works.

The final track, 'Dinner Inside' takes a step further into the realms of strangeness, a sort of interpretative soundtrack to the subject of the title, using elements of semi-operatic pop and Latina filtered through a refractive lens of psychedelic avant-gardism. And then they waltz off into another dimension, leaving me perplexed and baffled. It's a strange, but not altogether unpleasant feeling.


http://www.myspace.com/thevabelt
  author: Christopher Nosnibor

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