Why Aren't You Listening?

There are a lot of seemingly unconnected sounds here but they do all combine effectively to make a remarkable set of electronic dreamscapes...

Be patient, and you should be rewarded. But it’s not a record that is going to give up its best moments lightly.

I wonder if this is the sort of record that is looking to stir up some obscure but bug-eyed revolution: taking over a carpet warehouse or something. The songs could be hymns for a cult.

Other tracks follow this loose, dubby pattern. Moondog rouses itself to shake some action in a variety of half-arsed styles, but only after it’s had a pizza and a little snooze.

Joost - the selecter and Yannick - the dj, (‘Jamaica style’) have put together a turbulent mix, the sort of thing that veers giddily between utter brilliance and total (to our ears) corporate high-gloss naff.

Ever imagined what it would have sounded like if Violet Elizabeth Bott and William Brown had formed a high-energy, pop-rock band after indulging their shared passion for Nazi crank? Well cogitate no more.

It’s a cozy, inviting, entertaining, pleasant, fun, pretty, nice listen and many more things besides. It’s canny.

It’s the sort of sound that Julie Cruise or the Blue Nile had, the sort that John Maus appropriated, a sort of Gothic bedroom synth pop

...there’s an element that sounds fresh and original, despite the fact that serious types indulging in recording industrial noises and whipping guitar samples within an inch of their life are a pound to a penny these days.

...a welter of guitars pianos, lung bursting growls and chord changes that turn slower than the Queen Mary, all happening in over ten minutes, no holds barred...

Three releases that - despite their differences in make-up, execution and background – all share a certain sombre and seasonal mood. Perfect for a winter’s listen, dark and Gothic, like a Gustave Doré print

the band’s sound is essentially lackadaisical, it’s their “thing”, their core… and as long as you can live with that, you will find that the tracks are charming enough in their own way.

Look at the titles, it should give you a hint of what’s going on: Are You Expired?, Coward, Bodies, Wrong Affection. You almost expect a hidden extra track called Body Bag, or something.

So there you have it: a rush of noise if ever there was one. This one minute attack the band has perfected is pretty tremendous, there is a plan in all of this, despite the idea that this record is of the moment.

...the lad’s a little in love with those 60’s soundtracks and jingles, from Morricone to Studio G, and is all for having a pop at creating a log cabin take on this oeuvre.

...it’s a quite pleasant world to listen into, this world of Animaux Surround; despite all the doom and gloom and all the languid, woozy synths and deadpan vox.

It’s a bit in thrall with Mr Fantasy era Traffic, or early Soft Machine for that matter (that hint of parlour room psych-jazz), but it’s too fucking raga.

a complete brain-fuck of an album

I really like this LP, despite its hangdog air and despite it being nothing new or hip or “with it”, daddy-oh. It’s just got good songs, well presented and convincingly sung. Surely that’s enough?