BIRTHDAY ASS

— First review of this album —

How crazy assy wonderful. Such a brilliant funky album "Head Of The Household" whose sleeve pic is also crazy good was released on April 23, 2021 as the second full-length opus by a US-based promising sextet project BIRTHDAY ASS. They call their sound appearance punk or skronky ... yeah it's really true, but I cannot avoid funky jazzy avangarde-y textile via the nine 'easily-transmissible' agents on this album. The musical material or basis sounds quite scattered and freaky featuring assertive madness by wind instruments, but mysteriously their colour of sounds are so perfectly matured and unificated enough to grasp my mind and brain strictly. Well their combo foundation and soundscape remind me of the wonderful similarity to my best friend Japanese band DJAMRA (plus female vocals) who always perform fascinatingly and dynamically both on stage and in a recorded opus. That is, their sound quality should be splendid enough to please us who can NEVER get interested in a sort of orthodox soundgarden.

Their nine music sentences are all short indeed, but every single song involves massive energy, quirkiness, and enchant beyond expression. From the first track "Blah" eccentricity is magnificent. Incredible sound power shots and unpredictable melody lines knock us out completely. The middle corner of the following song "Sunlit Toes" makes us feel like a unique moment by Le Silo. The combination of punky vibes and sincere tranquil touches in "Jello" is also charming and lovely. Several heavy minutes in the former part of "Spiced Twice" are my favourite, and the latter sensitive mystic movements are too. On the contrary, I get surprised at "Buckle My Shoe"'s inorganic monotonous phases so badly. The battle of melodically messy points and deep heavy dreamy cutting-edges in "Plubbage Blubbage" squeezes our ears enjoyably. One of my favourite songs "Malai, My Guy" consists of kinky speedy jazz rock sounds and post-punk-ish seasons. Such a variety of expressions could be approved by every progressive rock fan. Another funky one "Broccoli Face", what an impressive title, gives us kinda mind stabilization by unstable melody lines and rhythm bases.

Some improvisational attachments can be heard here and there but their melodic and rhythmic schemes are pretty minute and detailed. Sounds like one instrument solidifies another one and all get uniformly merged in a fantastic manner. Wonder why. Nah it's quite natural. Because the last bluesy ballad "K Helap" is so delightful, just like the overall summary of their ultimate creativity. Glad you understand and enjoy this gem.