LOON ATTIC

Nick Prol and The Proletarians are a very welcome addition to the wonky avant pop scene. This is the debut album from the group put together by Nick to play his particular style of catchy pop with experimental sounds, found sound and avant-prog element, along with bucket loads of humor. This is really Pop In Opposition. The songs are typically 1 to 3 minutes long with 23 on the album. This clearly reminds one of Bob Drakes style of short punchy high energy pop that doesn't stick around to overstay its welcome. Other clear influences are XTC, Mr Bungle, Cardiacs while it has a personality of its own. Clearly the rest of the band and guest musicians have also added their creative touches to make this a collaborative effort.

In addition to Nick on guitar and vocals the band is made up of saxophonist Dave Newhouse of classic avant- jazz rock group The Muffins, who has collaborated with the likes of Fred Frith and Sun Ra's Arkestra as well as bassist/multi-instrumentalist Ben Spees and drummer Connor Reilly of adroit progressive/experimental rock group, The Mercury Tree.

The guest list is a literal who's who of the avant scene, including but not limited to, Bob Drake (solo, Thinking Plague, 5uus, etc), Thymme Jones (Cheer-Accident), Moe! Staiano (Sleepytime Gorilla Museum), Matt Lebofsky (Secret Chiefs 3, Mirthkon, MoeTar), Dave Willey (Thinking Plague, Hamster Theater), Gavin Wallace-Ailsworth (Bent Knee), Paul Sears (The Muffins). All ably pulled together by the producers Ian Beabout & Ben Spees.

A funny, bouncy, punch peach of an album.