TURF ASCENSION

I couldn't get into BUBBLEMATH's first two complex and dense albums so I'm not sure what possessed me to pick this up recently. Oh yeah that flashlight keychain that came with it! I hooked it onto my car keys and I now have a BUBBLEMATH mini flashlight. Not since GURU GURU giving away a balloon and a button in one of their live archival releases have I felt so special. Also to be fair I read the comments that band leader and keyboardist Kai Esbensen said about allowing themes to linger longer instead of this turning on a dime constantly both vocally and instrumentally which are so not my thing and the reason I've had trouble with some of the CARDIACS stuff.

And he was right, the middle two tracks of the four presented here are not insane! There's is actually mellow bits and some space to breathe. This five piece is from Minnesota and one other thing Kai mentioned was how much time was put into the lyrics. They weren't an afterthought by a long shot, these are intelligent and over my head(doesn't take much) but hey incredible lyrics in an avant/pop setting what's not to like? Oh yeah not my thing but if it's yours this might be the best record you will ever hear in your life.

He gets asked about the cover art constantly not so surprisingly. Done by the bass player Kai calls them tangle monsters that you can look at while listening to the music and if you look hard enough at the knots and tangles it will reveal subtle references to each track(haha). This album is dominated by the vocals and while he is a good singer I am not into them so bottom line this one is all about taste and my lack of it apparently. Highly praised in the avant world I just have always had trouble with vocal dominated avant/pop. Go figure? The drummer is amazing though but the music is not my thing.