ALBUM REVIEW: OF MONTREAL - THECONTROLLERSPHER EP

You can’t really say of Montreal like to stay in one place. Their love for experimentation, playfulness and schizoid songs has been a given from day one. So there should be no surprise that the opening song of the bands new EP, thecontrollersphere, sounds like a completely different band. Black Lion Massacre is so claustrophobic and has so many crashes, metallic sounds, heavy obtrusive distorts and uncomfortable pure noise, it seems more like something London-based industrial outfit S.C.U.M. or even the New Yorkers from Black Dice would do.

thecontrollersphere is, mind you, not a cohesive collection of songs at all. The only thing that might be considered a common element is the spoken word, but even so, the sheer oddness of each song makes it hard for the listener to find this a striking similarity. What is clearly a common denominator is that the EP manages to completely baffling the listener.

But rest assured, Kevin Barnes&co return to familiar grounds more than once. L’age D’or is a pop-funk gem a la Prince, as pastiche as anything of Montreal have done. Holiday Call belongs on Hidden Fauna, with its stylistic changes (is that a sitar?), psychedelia and electronic loops.

However, the melodies are far too intricate and the way one songs follows the other too strange for anyone to pin them down. And, as if there was any need, of Montreal prove themselves once again to be a very creative group, one that is not afraid to pen mind wrappers.

~ Ana Dinescu