BRATISLAVA

Now, this is music from the wacky side of weirdness.

British trio Big Block 454 - naming themselves after a brand of car engines - seems to have read the big book of rules on how to make music, and collectively decided to disregard all written in there. Instead we get a weird and wacky mix of Krautrock, Beatles and Madness - with a punk approach and leanings towards psychedelia and spacey textures.

Regular song structures for whimsical, wacky and non-standard songs, or non-regular song structures for more regularly performed tunes. Tongue in cheek avant-garde music with a distinctive English sound to it, in what sounds like a deliberately produced low-fi sounding atmosphere.

Not for the feint of heart this one, but if you're into experimental and rather unique music this one might be your cup of tea.

This is such a great album. Very British and very accessible, with great sound and production. Sometimes poppy, sometimes folky, usually quirky and eccentric. Different styles and instruments used as well as different singing styles. This is the only album by Big Block 454 to be rated/reviewed here on PA. From what I've read, the band plan to put all their albums up on their Bandcamp page. All PAers should go to their Bandcamp page and listen to/download their latest two albums. There is a lot worse music out there you could be hearing for free.

"Motorcycle Au Pair Boy" starts off almost baroque with guitar before going into post-punk/New Wave territory. Nice melodic scat-singing at the end. "Hi, Lax Old Medic!" is some excellent dub reggae. Great production on this song. "I Was Arthur Brown's Health & Safety Advisor (On Power Lines)" has some Floyd-like delayed bass near the end. Great title. "Lush Ulan Bator" is a really good catchy pop song which you can listen to here on PA.

"Foreign Aeroplanes Upset Sleeping Tirana" has some backwards vocals in places. The chorus is very Brian Eno sounding. Good piano playing in this song. The most avant-garde part of the album is the end of "Three Sevens Clash" with the skronking saxes during a spoken word section. "Upside-Down & Dirty" has very loud '80s sounding gated drums. Muffled vocals and some post-punk guitar. Cool spacey synth sounds in the middle. Love how the drums are changed to full stereo at the end. "Ouspensky's Cellar" has cool drum machine programming and nice synth. Vocals consist of "many old men" sung in harmony with a single voice responding different lines. Like the vocal samples of some woman speaking another language other than English.

The music in RIO/Avant Prog is some of the most diverse music you will ever hear. Sometimes RIO/Avant can be more eclectic than Eclectic. Along with the more noisy and complex bands you get groups like Big Block 454. Zappa and Samla aren't the only artists listed under RIO/Avant with a sense of humour, as this album shows. This album is very accessible and sometimes catchy avant-prog. Highly recommended to those will an open mind and a sense of humour. 4 stars.