Bird Brains

Album review

With their first full-length in six years, 2016's Congrats, Toronto electro-rock group Holy Fuck honed their junk-shop aesthetic into something resembling a warped vision of pop music, resulting in some of their best work to date. A year later, they released Bird Brains, a four-song EP that seems to emphasize their dance side. Most of the tracks are uptempo, with distorted drum machines combined with live drumming and samples, as well as incoherent vocals warbling back in the mix. The songs groove along, with the bass and beats gradually getting bigger and more hyped-up, and heading toward the peak of the dance party. "Chains" is seven minutes of wild energy, with trippy effects surrounding the ever-expanding beat and arpeggiated bassline, along with primal howls calling out from the eye of the storm. The track could've easily been released as a DFA 12", particularly during blog-house's late-2000s halcyon era, but it sounds great no matter when it was released. "New Dang" is similar, and brings to mind a more fully developed, modernized Liquid Liquid flirting with Chicago house, but not going fully over the edge. The song's wayward vocals come into focus during the song's thumping breakdown, after which the track builds back up and blooms ecstatically. The EP's only cool-down comes in the form of "Raymond," a mellow, dazed instrumental featuring thumb pianos, droning saxophone, and shredded, rustling delay. With the exception of this track (which sounds pretty decent, in all fairness), this is most definitely the Holy Fuck release that'll come in handy for your next hipster dance party.

© Paul Simpson /TiVo