Search - Cerberus Shoal :: Bastion of Itchy Preeves

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S. R Robertson | Oh Henry? | 01/10/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Cerberus Shoal is a band of dualities. Sometimes they're beautiful, sometimes they're irritating. Sometimes they churn out inspired pieces of psychedelic mysticisms. Other times they give in to the trend of avant-garde deconstructionists (see John Zorn or industrial noise acts like Merzbow and Wolf Prey) whose soul purpose is to annoy you with deliberately abrasive and unnerving cataclysms. Most of the time it's pretty interesting stuff, and pretty clever, but sometimes the punky in-jokes can be a bit frustrating. The 2-minute loop of some sort of devil puppet Beefheart at the beginning of "Boghart the Change" was at first annoying to me, but it grows on you. It is one of many pieces here that are loooooong, droney, repetitive, and trance-inducing. The closest comparison I can make is Can, with a similar process of long hallucinatory build-ups with unexpected crescendoes that collapse back into minimalism and continue this several times.



Other examples of this pattern can be seen with "A Cloud No Bigger..." and its similarly named counterpoint, which also manages to be nicely subdued and meditative. "A Head no Bigger..." also ends with a glorious bit of ear candy involving layered music boxes and alien voices spurting out a bit of cosmic philosophy. There are several ambient noise instrumentals as well ("Nonex", "Grandsire") which are nice bits of unusual atmosphere.



As far as the overall sound goes, they have been described by Pitchfork as "a loose, more rustic Thinking Fellers Union". If you have no idea what I'm talking about, just imagine if Tom Waits and Sonic Youth were abducted by aliens and cross-bred. The resulting band of babies were then raised on some far off, otherworldly planet which was mostly desolate like the origins of Earth. Inspired by the unusual harmonies and mind-expanding conepts of their bizarre dimension, they constructed thier own instruments and starting making folk songs and epic compositions for use in their demon-angel-teddy bear-Bob Sagat-dwarfland rituals. Lots of awesome atypical instrumentation here being used in very atypical ways---banjoes tuned to sound like Javanese gamelan bells, deranged muppet choirs, cascading waves of chimes, and unusual noises and special effects galore (but kept to a minimum---most of the noises made here are organic and undistorted).



"Baby Gal" and "Train Car Nursery" are the only songs that approach pop sensibility, and indicative of what quality songs they could construct if they chose to construct an anvant-pop album. "Baby Gal" sounds like a long lost song from Nick Cave's Murder Ballads. Listen to the lyrics, you'll see. It's also got some real interesting use of jaw harp. "Train Car..." follows in similar Waits territory, all carnivalesque like it came from THe Black Rider.



Well, all in all...certainly very unique and compelling, but it's a mixed bag. It's definitely not for the impatient, but if you're the type of person who always thought the drawn-out introspection and build-ups of post-rock bands (Godspeed, Sigur Ros) could use more esotericism and humour, then Cerberus Shoal is definitely what you want. Seriously, though, they are one of the most creative and innovative bands working today. Also, recommended: The mostly instrumental "Mr. Boy Dog" and the political concept album "The Land We All Believe In"."

Sonic Psychout!

HeidiKakes | NY | 08/04/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Cerberus Shoal's Bastion of Itchy Preeves has it all! From odd Balinese gamelan rhythms to King Crimson's prog rock jams to Cromagnon's hippie freakouts to Animal Collective's organic campfire ditties to Les Baxter's theremin-tinged haunted exotica to Kemialliset Ystavat's Finnish folk-stylings to the shimmery lullabies of Toychestra to of course everything Sun City Girls stood for, Cerberus Shoal takes listeners on a psychadelic journey around the world and back in less time than it takes to get to LaGuardia.



There are so many incredible things going on all at once on this album that you will have to listen to it repeatedly and VERY closely just to get even begin to understand everything.



Highly recommended for fans of post rock, psych-folk, finnish folk, world music, avant-garde rock, prog rock, ecclectic jam bands and everything in between!



This is the soundtrack to my summer."