Diledadafish - Mothball flac album

Without doubt the most instant comparison with their sound would be THE RESIDENTS - this music has the same quirkiness and playful playtime naive Surrealism. However, they seem to take the sound so much further, through Classical references, caliope Jazz and Children's Television incidental music from the 70s (in the UK, at least). You could say this is an audio version of animated cartoons, only what the visuals to this often dark and other-worldly music would be is anyone's guess - certainly not Mickey Mouse, or at least the famous rodent as we have come to know him. Individual tracks have specific themes, but the overall effect of an entire 21 track album is of passage through a soundtrack of such mood and imagery that experienced with more than the mildest of drugs could leave you cold and alienated in a landscape so altered from 'normality', the experience could destroy your mind. Discord, not cacophonic, but semi-tonal, plays a big part here, with most of the pieces being delibaerately off-key and rhythms faultering. Human voices appear now and again, assuring us that this music originated on our planet.In a lot of ways this reminds me of the story-telling style of the JIM JEAN cassette - although without the dialogue to guide us, we have to use our imagination to navigate our way through this land, where time has leaked through from the 1950s to well into the 21st century. It's a journey, or rather I should say a Trip, but it's left to the individual to decide where they are and just what the hell this is doing. To a seriously fractured mind, this may come across as normality, but to most of us, it's a chance to experience auditory perception from a fractured mind. This is Madness, but a Madness you can switch off at any time.Seriously disturbed, and often wonderfully descriptive, this album is never an easy experience. Be brave and enter their world.Originally reviewed for Soft Watch.