Difficult, very difficult. Cheer-Accident, basically a collective of Chicago-based musicians, make prog-pop-noise. Seeing that they release their records on the Cuneiform-label, you can expect a lot of difficult music. And you won't be surprised − I hesitate to use the word 'disappointed' − because I think if you're looking for pure prog rock music you will only be surprised, because No Ifs, Ands Or Dogs contains quite an eclectic bunch of songs. Ranging from pop in Drag You Down via irritating noise in Trial Of Error to the Residents-like, but still irritating, This Is The New That. There are also side-trips to zeuhl-like music in Sleep, Death By Pollyanna and to Frank Zappa in Barely Breathing, to end somewhere near Robert Fripp in Salad Dies and The Beach Boys in Cynical Girl. References like Magma, Thinking Plague and Henry Cow are not difficult to find, as long as the music remains a kind of avant-prog. Well, you have to like that kind of stuff, but for me it sounds too much like the band decided to act clever for the sake of acting clever. As a result this album goes every which way which makes it very difficult to listen to. * André de Waal (edited by Peter Willemsen) Where to buy? |
