Believo!

Album review

Enon are a group that are truly of the transition from the 1990s to the early 2000s. They dress their eccentric pop/rock songs with the kinds of noises, samples, and bashing oddball percussion that would have been difficult, if not impossible, to achieve with the technology and mindset of even ten years prior to this release. Percussionist Rick Lee grounds (or grinds) the tracks with effects pedals, samplers, portable turntable, and crunching low-end beats. An assortment of warped sound treatments careen across the background, or even whoosh right into the foreground. As for the songs and the attitude, they're hard to get a handle on, covering as they do such a willfully eclectic sonic and emotional terrain. There's robotic electro-funk ("Biofeedback"); '70s falsetto soul as it might have sounded if it was recorded in a machine shop ("Rubber Car"); a swampy lo-fi torch song ("Cruel"); grim-reaper spookiness ("Matters Grey"); jangly, moody guitar alt pop ("Get the Letter Out," "World in a Jar"), and just plain deranged sound collages. In their technological savvy and genre-hopping, they might inspire comparisons to Olivia Tremor Control and Beck, although they're less pop-friendly than either of those acts (though not entirely devoid of melodic appeal). Interesting, but not captivating, and at 32 minutes, on the brief side
© Richie Unterberger /TiVo