UBERBAND

The humoristic vein permeates the whole album which in any case shows the high musical skills of the members. After the Intro, the first proper song "Fu*k, I'm RIchard Marx" reminds me to GonG for the signatures, but it's also punky in some heavier parts so that I also hear hints of GREEN JELLY...not so punk, really.

"The Net" reminds to the original English punk, like SEX PISTOLS, but it can remind to CARDIACS, too. I have to confess that even if I'm on a progressive website, I like the punk rock. It's funny how the first very sexually explicit song "Yellow Vulva" starts with a swing with the intermission of 50's pop. Another characteristic of this band: mixing various genres in the same song.. which in the final part touches metal, too.

"I Am an Attorney" is simply crazy. A hard rock song with a pop bluesy middle part. Those guys can really play every kind of music. Very enjoyable like all the album. In the final it quotes a famous disco song but I'm not an expert and I can't tell which one. It could even be Herbie Hancick, who knows?

"Heinz 57 and Cocaine" is another incredibly funny song touching a number of genres. Samba, metal, post-punk,80s pop...there's a bit of everything. Not easy to describe.

The following track is entitled "Sperm". It's a story about those little cells who "die in this receptacle". It's the longest song which features a very ZAPPAesque instrumental part.

"Ballad Of The Intergalactic Hitman Underwear Fetishist" is another song full of everything. How can a poor reviewer describe a song in which the singer goes from falsetto to growl? Again, it's exetremely weel played and arranged and even if the various parts can seems disconnected, each is verry good and in the end the song doesn't have changes happening suddenly, the transitions are smooth enough.

The closer is still in this vein, Another track scoring more than 7 minutes with a bit of everything inside. Following is a quote from its lyrics, just to give an idea:

"When I get a group of people together who have a similar desire to have their behavior altered by the chemical properties of alcohol, it soon becomes clear that we'll have fun together This fun includes moving and saying certain words, yes it does"

So I strongly suggest to pay a visit to bandcamp and download both this album and their postumous HARMSTRAPPED.

Enjoy

So what comes after? A sort of dixieland song with a Broadway flavor suddenly changing into a 60s melodic song, suddenly changing into something else coming from the 80s, but everything extremely well played, because first of all this is a band of skilled instrumentists.

"Slowly"...continues in this parodistic vein. It could be the Platters meeting the Oasis...but before you can realize, you are listening to a slow samba, then back to the main theme. The fake Spanish of the second part is remarkable, just before entering a Crimsonian section which fades into the album's masterpiece.

"Salmon Boots" is incredibly fun, with the bluesy choir and the "Michael Jackson's like" lead vocals speaking of a pair of fish-stinking salmon boots. After some caughs the choir is replaced by instruments for a progressive part suddenly replaced by a swing jazz section. Note what bass and piano do before ending inti the follwing track.

"Horse" is funky, then easy jazz, then 60s psychedelia. Between Zappa and GonG, both for the composition and execution skills and for the crazyness. The guitar solo is nice and I have found myself thinking that a wah-wah on it would have been perfect. But there's more. I don't know how the follwing part can be described, but it return to the easy jazz to later get into a kind of spiritual. They put so much in a single song that if expanded they could have released a triple album.

Finally "5$", which is also what I have paid for the Bandcamp download. A proper 70s rock song reminding of bands like Who or early Led Zeppelin with an excellent rock instrumental part where the guitar has more space than in the other tracks.

In all the tracks the vocals deserve to be mentioned, too.

It's a pity that after this EP Uberband have disbanded. This is my "discovery" of 2016. Few days ago I was playing "Oompapa" in my car, from a smartphone connected to the car audio "aux". My wife took the phone off and threw it to the rear seats. It's a sign that it's good.

4 octopus stars.

The first track "Oompapa", especially, grabs our ears and brain fully with such a meaningless phrase and catchy melodic core. And quite amazing they keep crooked positive phase for every avantgarde freak amongst a bunch of acceptable elements. The following "Layabout" reminds me of some antipop combos who push fake pop immigrants filched somewhere in the pop / rock scene. "Slowly" attaches itself and themselves to us Japanese, filled with sticky "Enka-ish" texture but don't get deceived.

They eccentrically groove and approve upon every track. For example, "Horse" drenched in danceable vibes and beats sounds like a Japanese festival dance Awaodori, enough with their interpretation for happiness or luckiness ... fine for the audience to touch a fantastic moment (half an hour) that was created just before their disbandment (and released posthumously) ... what a pity, but a gem.