Menomena - Friend and Foe

by Andrew Carver

published: 6 / 5 / 2007

Label: Barsuk Records
Format: CD

Fabulously oddball and offbeat psych-pop on second album from Portland, Oregon-based group Menomena

Review

Combine the psych-pop oddity of the Flaming Lips with the religious exultation of TV on The Radio and Japanese psych-pop genius Cornelius’ cut-and-paste esthetic and you might end up with a sound close to Menomena’s. The Portland, Oregon band is famous for constructing its songs by feeding snatches of improvised music through its custom song-building software, DEELER, and slowly building the loops into songs. At times, the songs sound like they’ve been constructed with the bits and pieces of other songs, the odd electronic squiggle bubbling out of nowhere and vanishing just as quickly. While this might sound like a recipe for metronomic, krautrock style music, the band keeps things moving: A good idea is rarely sustained for more than a couple of bars: The thundering drum intro of opener ‘Muscle’n’Flow’ suddenly shifts to a pulsing bassline and a slacker pop vocal. Slide, a two-stepping piano figure and a scratchy guitar riff briefly surface then drop away for another riff. The middle section puts a yearning vocal over blissful organ and piano. The band’s innovative writing hews closely to the demands of melody; while unconventional the songs are never unlistenable or “difficult.” (Figuring out what the song titles are from the wildly creative packaging can be a bit tricky though.) On several songs delicate piano and chiming xylophone make for a striking contrast with ominous bass lines and percussion. At its most stripped down - such as ‘Weird’, where a two-note saxophone riff, a four-note synth riff and a bone-simple drum break are blended with a few more spare instrumental flourishes - the music attains a stately grandeur akin to Morphine’s. At their most ecstatic the band’s songs take on the luminescent air of the Flaming Lips and Mercury Rev’s best productions.