ANIMALISM

Even though Grey Mouse were back with their fourth album only a year after their previous one, of course there had been some line-up changes. This time they had added a second sitar player in Sergey Perehov and had dispensed totally with a full-time guitarist and instead had used some guests (although one of these was Herman Aleshin who had guested on a few other albums) and even brought in a banjo player!! The strange thing is though, in many ways this is a far less experimental album than previously, and the sitars are not nearly as in your face as one might expect. In many ways it feels this album belongs to Victoria in that the band are bringing in elements of grunge and garage rock, all steeped with plenty of blues' idioms (we even get a drum solo in "Erase") and it feels in some ways as if they have been listening to Stone The Crows as an influence and have then taken it from there.

This album is much more in your face and less experimental than the last few and given this followed on so quickly from the last one with basically the same line-up that is somewhat of a surprise. There are still times when they do move back in that direction, with the lengthy "Bottom" being a case in point, but it definitely feels as if this is a band who simply refuse to stand still and instead need to keep moving and changing. Back in the early days of prog and classic rock bands changed consistently, often at a very rapid pace and it was sometimes hard to keep up, whereas today it is far more common for bands to find a sound and stick with it for a period of time. That is obviously not good enough for these guys, who keep transforming themselves yet maintaining a common thread, so the albums are all related even if each one is different in its own way. Another very enjoyable release, and it is only due to personal taste that I did not enjoy this quite as much as the previous one.