SUPERLUMINAL PACHYDERM

My other main problem with this album is that I cannot get into the vocals. Project leader Ken Robinson has adopted a Schoenbergian Sprechgesang vocal style reminiscent of modern R.I.O. singers like Elaine Di Falco: half-spoken, irregularly paced and unpredictably rising and falling in pitch (which is made even more alienating in the case of this album seeing as how the lyrics, taken from the notoriously inaccurate Portuguese-to-English dictionary "English As She Is Spoke", are all in broken and barely comprehensible English), but Robinson's delivery here sounds a bit too cartoony to properly do the part: his voice doesn't have a charismatic, songlike quality to it, and often it feels like it's just getting in the way of the music. The only track where everything feels well integrated is "For To Dine", an abstract sound collage that sounds like serialist music: here the vocals (which are themselves sped up and manipulated throughout the song) feel like they're on even footing within the intriguing, organized chaos in which even the weird, overly staccato guitars don't feel out of place.

In compositional terms alone, this album is a winner as far as I'm concerned. It covers a lot of stylistic ground, from free jazz noise ("A Thousand Civilities") to hellish Univers Zero-style R.I.O. marches ("He Has A Good Beak") to spooky jazzy shuffles ("The Stone As Roll Not Heap Up Not Foam") to polyrhythmic minimalist études ("Familiar Phrases"), and yet it feels like a coherent and consistently interesting whole. The talent and commitment involved with this project is gleaming, and I look forward to the creator's future endeavours.

IBD is not an "excellent addition" it'd rather be a reference album. If I rate five it tells I'd change nothing to it. Well ? I would, here and there. I rate more than four, by a whole quarter... The maker claims it's just hobby or toilet music, but it has an amazing lot for it.

Chanticleer's famous set of LFO opinions is likely to joint a moustache onto the crust's thread, in a bubbling shell delving recipes of cogs. Such a chorus rate footstool would embarass a taxi at one morsel of police, the whole Edwards being presented a ceramist, how consistently driven out of genuine stalwart a twinge, Roland's MartianChime ? When evaluating a station, should distill the wedge on the blackboard.

IBD starts with a kind of mid-80s dance club music track, colourful cristal-like tones but also "suspended" harmonies can be heard in a climate of expectation : people there would dance shyly, trusting the cool start to develop into something hotter... Then the drums start and raise the level of intensity, the piece is about to take off, the DJ might cheer us up... "GOOD EVENING, ...I CAN'T HEAR YOU...READY FOR THE LOOOOOOOOONG NIGHT ?" that's not what happens... We hear a relaxed chubby-child-like candid voice humming SP style lyrics*. The guy increases the "wtf" (well, only for some..., see **) tension when each sung note is decomposed into two pitches that alternate quickly ( like two intricated particles...Something radioactive there maybe... In terms of harmony the tensions are very interesting... ). A Gary Larson character experiencing Louis Wain syndroms, something like this. Such an efficient way to make it all sound oppressive with no big artillery or distortion, etc ; at its maximum energy, the voice raises like the one of a teacher who'd put pupils under pressure in order to obtain a sustained focus, at time exaggerately, in order to add a funny element and reoxygenate.

EDIT A couple of months after I'd typed this review I'd listen again and would think of that piece as a caricature of a politician telling empty words to the crowd, as nonsensical lyrics are a way to show how listening to meaningless speeches feel like, also the delay and reverb suggest a solemn event, other musical ingredients would refer to a party, so all in all a happy solemn event; the duplication of the voice and pitch would refer to double-meaning or being double-sided, which is quite typical of politicians. The energy in the colorful yet adamant & unorganic rythm section help express that we'd be on adrenaline caricaturing this empty speech.

* as a recurring feature in SP albums, lyrics are made of words put in a way that would remind us of an Exquisite Corpse, all seemingly related to the author's everyday life between job, home and leisure time, themes I related to boredom, a sense of vulnerability and awe; let anyone discover whether which proletarian food will be talked about, if it'll be about nose and smells, anything related to bathroom / waters (esp waters), if it'll be more about piping or plumbing, math elements ... the mysterious puzzle of words, from boring to fascinating. If you didn't get the tenth of the lyrics you could hear, reverse sonic filters make it worse.

**Why don't we imagine playing All Toilets of the City to a huge audience full of excited bald thick skinned big- heads with extreme macrocrania and pipe sockets nodding energetically at every beat, one pipe or two would link some of those heads to some nerves or veins down onto the body, ...

The second piece starts with a solid bass riff, but it doesn't take long before the guy gets us into a place where someone seems to rub a balloon and moves it from one of our ears to the other during a kind of occult incantation, made of SP lyrics style, the words themselves having no obvious magical function ; this last ingredient will be served quite often now and then. Also reverse bits for more dizziness. Are we experienced... ?

Eometry : a floating ghostly voice, the same kind of incantations..., wandering around a... well... dance club. Eometry has this cheap sounding synth bass slap used as a pulse, but has pretty ethereal and trippy parts, including a great riff, exciting harmonic effects towards the end, accompanied by monk choirs plus their leader....

The remaining pieces contain similar ingredients as the ones described hereabove, except Radio Donkey, the only one that, music-wise, would feel lighter, with less ambiguity and "incoherence" (in the music).

So I find that odd jewel of an album very well balanced between unsettling and straightforward ingredients. May it have the kudos it deserves !...

For more infos search "Zappa does neo prog or space rock." and you'll find more info by the maker ( whose user name on PA is Progaardvark ).

Beginning the 1st disc is 'The Bonehead Conjecture'. Starting with layered and sustained synths and some vocally processed 'ooo's, the rhythm kicks in with a steady fast pattern and this is joined by a driving bass line. Then, you get some dissonant layered voices moaning and groaning. 'One Poop Dog' then comes along with chunky bass, jangly guitar chords and a crazy arppegio pattern similar to King Crimson's Discipline sound. There is no barking in this short track, so there is no dog to keep track of, but there is some barking in the next track 'Television Set', a track of someone asking if we are drinking water, some tricky, hesitant percussion and some slowed vocals that are too low and slow to be discernable. Other exclamations such as 'Calendar!' and 'No, you're a television set!' continue as synths and 'Toilet breath' continue to regularly come through your speakers. Silly random statements like this continue, then the statements start to become layered over each other and the angry dog starts barking which is voiced by guest Riker Houser. This goes on for over 7 minutes.

'Humming Like a Pile of Knee Pads' begins with atmospheric synths and then the vocals begin, with actual lyrics, that are pretty much a randomly generated group of Beck style lyrics, in other words, it doesn't make sense, but it sure is funny, Ethyl. At about 2 minutes, a steady rhythm begins and a melodic synth line plays for a while before the lyrics return, with the word 'sniffing' repeated over 50 times. 'A careless faucet of doubting waffles sniffing the beans and the beans' gives you a sample of the lyrics you can expect. The synth line and steady rhythm returns for another instrumental break before more silly lyrics return. At least this 9 minute track has more structure than the previous track, and the lyrics, even though they are mostly fragments of random verbs and nouns put together and making some kind of strange sense, more or less, mostly less. The vocals are more spoken word but in a sing-song style voice like pulling random notes out of the air.

'Size 40 Pants' is an atmospheric drone with a list of various foods you can eat to attain size 40 pants. The list is spoken in voices set at various speeds. Of course there are cookies. 'A Joy Ride in the Neutrino Tank' is described as what it feels like to be a particle in a neutrino tank. This track consists of a fast, yet quirky beat and a complex bass line and plucked guitars later joined by sustained chords on a synth. Later, the synth picks out a rather random melody with pitches changing and sliding all over the place. This joy ride continues on for 8 minutes as you imagine yourself spinning out of control assuming the place of the particle. 'The Nasal Metric System' is simply an atmospheric synth with a slow, robotic voice reciting ridiculous lyrics for over 5 minutes.

The last track on the first CD is over 17 minutes called 'A Symphony of Beef'. This continues the atmospheric effects and now the vocals are more normal, but randomly singing notes with more odd lyrics with a minimal background. After 3 minutes, percussion and bass finally come in, but the random melody continues. Then the phone rings and there is a strange conversation about a dog pooping. As silly as this is, I still find myself laughing at how off center everything is. After 6 minutes, the phone conversation ends, and the random melody returns where it left off, as if the singer had something important to randomly say. This creation is obviously the brainchild of someone that is disturbed, but yet scarily intelligent. Once in a while, the swirling synths get interrupted by bass and percussion, again seemingly random.

As the 2nd disc begins, you start to realize that the word aardvark is more than just an answer to a crossword clue or a hard shelled animal found smashed on the Texas highway. Wait a minute, is that correct? Consult the closest web browser to find out it is true. 'Early Formations of Larry Hair' goes there in another 8 minute exploration of the meaning of reality with mind- opening sequences of minimal synth and wandering lyrical explorations. The beat quickens as will the beat of your heart when the Elvis-like vocals occur on another album that the neighbor is listening to. This country tinged gem mixes psychedelic infused vocals only to change to a slower beat, and reverting to the country sound again as the lyrics continue to astound, amaze and confuse. The music continues to surprise as it goes off on interesting tangents and then return to your favorite hoe-down. But my own audio continues to mix with the Elvis record next door, so everything I've said about this track could be wrong.

'Masquerading as Rabbit Papers' is a short, mysterious sounding track as deep thoughts invade your sanity in mostly spoken vocals and swiss cheese references linking this track to Frank Zappa somehow. Oh yeah, I just did a review about Swiss Cheese, the album, not the food product. Cows. The instrumental 'Two-Poop Dog' then follows, and instantly you understand. Cool base and funky guitar with wild synth washers swirl your clothes into a frenzy as you deposit another 25 cents. The dryers however are only for the use of The Residents, which is a name of another hilarious and non-conforming band listed in the archives. The library, in the meantime, has a wonderful archival system based on the Dewey, Huey and Unca Donald cartoon featuring Bill Murray as Scrooge McDuck.

'Oof's Diarrhea' has an easy listening feel to it with lounge singing sensibilities. The vocals wander around with the free feel of the instrumental background and the pitty patter of the percussion and screeching guitar that outdoes the neighbor's sing- a-long Elvis party. As you sing a long to the Superluminal Pachyderm's lyrics, it won't be long before the cops arrive. 'Per Per Breek' is a memorable journey into the mind of a mindless genius who is mixing King Crimson fretless bass antics into wondering what a nose is. A definite highlight! Last, but not least, is the epic 'Should I Eat the Amplifier?', a 23 minute thumpity-thump-thump look at Frosty go over the hills of snow and through the woods of Grandmothers house of horrors. Watch as your brain melts in ecstasy of continuous poetic murmurings as the beat poetry that exists over the rainbows of Roy G.Biv, remember him? Before you know it, wonderful laughing noises are coming from your ears as you long for this track to persist into persistency while your loved one talks on the phone.

Anyway, this is an album. Socks!

The wait for this album was well worth it after the slightly disappointing Prum album from 2002. The album immediately kicks off with a slowly chugging bass line. After a couple bars, the drums arrive and after a few more bars I'm awash with what sounds like duo Mellotrons on the left and right side of my headphones. Following this intro, we return to the warmly odd and eerie world of the Superluminal Pachyderm: a crazy dude singing a bunch of nonsensical lyrics with warped vocals atop an eerie soundscape chugging along like a machine. But there is something different about this album. The instrumentation is much more advanced and adventurous. Earlier albums had instrumentation that basically was an eerie backing soundscape for the crazy lyrics. Now the instrumentation is more front-and-center, sharing the stage with the odd combinations of nouns and verbs emanating from Robinson's mouth. I find the influences seem like a good mix of space rock and neo prog. The last two minutes of this almost 16-minute long title track return to the intro containing Mellotron and topping it off with a backing orchestra for a nice conclusion.

The second track is a six-part 20+ minute long suite called Wrinkle the Eyebrows on the First Dog. Lord knows what this one is about. The music goes through a mix of calm and peaceful parts with cacophonic, chaotic pieces. All of that on top of a foundation of weird. Yeah, I don't know what genre you could place this one in. Some of the parts have a psychedelic feel to them, some are more avant rock. It's a killer song that doesn't sound like anything I ever heard before, sort of a "Supper's Ready" for the insane.

The third track is a neo prog number called Dezincification featuring Duane Tate on vocals. Again it isn't clear what this song is about, but Mr. Tate is clearly capable of singing this nonsense, partly playing multiple characters throughout the piece. The song also has a darkness to it thanks to the deep bass lines.

Track four is about a carnivorous cow that eats burgers and was penned by guest lyricist Jaime Jamison. Not only is Robinson weird, but so are his guests. This song has a kind of funky side to it, has lots of mooing (including some through a vocoder?), a Mellotron-washed chorus, and a wall-of- sound ending. It's sort of a nod to Pink Floyd's Animals in a way.

Following this is a short interlude called Pseudodesks and Fleas from the Atmosphere, a short instrumental featuring a nice cello line, spacey electronics, a short horn section. All timing in at under two minutes! This might have made a nice song if it was expanded. It's slightly comparable to ELO's first album.

The sixth track is a more song-based number called An E-mail from Franklin D. Roosevelt. It's basically about spam e-mails and covers the usual topics like viruses, Viagra ads, Nigeria, and pyramid schemes. The subject is still applicable nine years later. A nice fast-moving number that seems more like older SP songs.

The final track is a five-part, almost 17 minute long suite called Of the Ferric Oxides in the Old Toilets. This one features guest musician Jeff Edmunds on Stick and guitars and also providing effects and vocals. The first part has a really neat Stick groove with vocodor-ized vocals. Following this is a long section of what can best be described as a "psychedelic wipeout" filled with voices saying all kinds of nonsense, laughing, sound effects, electronics, and the kitchen sink. Eventually this madness leads to another part like the first one, but with a more driving, but complicated rhythm. A guest vocalist simply called Miriam sings this part in a rather weird, sort of muffled style. The final part of the song sounds like a repeating phone sound and footsteps walking. It's a spoken part about if a vacuum cleaner bag should be eaten with a fork or a spoon. A fitting ending to another crazy album by this obscure artist.

No, this isn't the same as Yes' Close to the Edge, or Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon, or Genesis' Selling England by the Pound. No, there really isn't any other masterpiece I could conceivably compare this to, but it's still a masterpiece and a very unique, weird, almost unworldly experience. Take a trip on the Sea of Peas, a journey that's like to cause brain damage. And hey, it's free on Bandcamp!

Five stars for one of the most unique albums I've had the pleasure of listening to.

I believe a lot of these tracks climbed kind of high on the prog rock charts on mp3.com, so this might be a "greatest hits" album in a sense, though very few of these songs have been exposed to the general public at large. The song Dementia is a "concise edition," cut from its original 18 minutes down to 7 1/2 minutes. Three of the songs were extracted from the multi-part title track of the Perpetual Insanity album. The only song on there that did not appear on the original track listings of the S.P. discography is Epitome of an Eidolon, but even that song is now available as a bonus track on the Perpetual Insanity album.

A rather scarce album that appears to be rather unavailable at this time. Although it certainly has a neat title, it's really only for collectors and fans of the group. Besides, Superluminal Pachyderm's strengths are in its lengthier numbers, almost completely lacking on this compilation.

The album starts off with The Screen Door Collector, which is basically the mutterings of a man who collects screen doors atop a quriky programmed drum beat and dark, spacey keys. In the middle part is a series of what seem like endless "woo-woos" made famous by Jerome "Curly" Howard of Three Stooges fame. A weird song that should put a smile on the faces of those with an odd sense of humor.

Reactive Shampoo follows this, with another odd programmed drum beat where both the bass and snare are echoed. A quirky guitar riff kicks in followed by Robinson's odd processed and distorted, almost spoken vocals evoking images of Popeye, camels, shampoo, cheese-liking Ross Perot and Glenn Seaborg. What?

Next is the first part of Punctuation of the Universe. This one has a very spacey feel to it. The vocals on this one are very crisp, but greatly processed with what seems like random pitch shifts. It's kind of a neat effect.

Another spacey, psychedelic number follows in Hollow Chocolate Bunnies. The piano has an eerie processed feel to it with an industrial drum pattern over top. Overall the song is reminiscent of the eerieness of SP's previous album, Perpetual Insanity. It seems to be about an imbalance in an Easter basket ecosystem where the hollow chocolate bunnies have disappeared. This song is sandwiched in between the first and second parts of Punctuation of the Universe. The second part of this song is in an unusual time signature. It has a catchy rhythm and sounds harder and more energetic than the usual plodding songs SP is known for. An interesting number.

The highlight of the album is the 10-minute song Hippopotamus with Kim Novak taking over on vocals and Miles Walsh providing some excellent guitar work. This one is a really catchy mix of neo prog and space rock. Novak's vocals are both powerful and beautiful (and needless to say, significantly better than Robinson's). As usual, the lyrics make no sense, but the chorus line "hippo, hippoptamus, I know you're out there somewhere, roaming around in my backyard" is priceless. You have to hear this one to believe it.

After the amazing Hippopotamus, the album falls flat on its face as it seems the ideas ran out and the Superluminal Pachyderm ran out of steam. The third part of Punctuation of the Universe seems as if both the music and lyrics were thrown together at the last minute. Admittedly, nonsense lyrics seem like they can be thrown together at any time, but somehow I think the songs preceding this one were carefully thought out. This one seems like a bad idea to fill out the album. This is followed by a short one-minute track where it seems Robinson actually admits that the last song was dumb. I admire an artist that realizes he's wasting his time.

Two Rolls on the Floor has a very quirky beat with an accompanying quirky guitar and bass riff. The vocals are overly processed and seem to overwhlem the song. After awhile this song really starts to get on my nerves. The 15-minute long The Great Big Hug of Life also seems to wear itself out with repetitiveness and very little in variety, generally being a quirky neo prog number. The chorus section sounds like a neo prog band at a country jam. If this song were shorter, it might have been better. It has way too many lyrics in my opinion. The odd psychedelic guitar noodlings during the ending fadeout are much too late to save this song.

Prum is pretty weird, but its not as eerie as the previous two SP albums. It has a more neo prog feel, mixed in with psychedelic/space rock and some industrial leanings and a few symphonic prog moments. I love the first two-thirds of this album, the latter third makes me want to put something else in my CD player.

The album actually starts off with a song that actually seems to have some sort of meaning. The Möbius Strip seems to be about the whole history of humanity endlessly repeating itself in a long loop, much like a möbius strip. The song sounds a lot like neo prog, with spacey keys in the background. The machine-programmed drums can get to you after awhile, as the song plods along for over 14 minutes. There is a really neat instrumental interlude on piano around the 8 minute mark that is highly complex and reminiscent of Gentle Giant. If this had been used more regularly throughout the song, it would have been much more interesting. Instead, the song is overly repetitive. The psychedelic guitar solo at the end is a nice highlight.

Following this is a short track called Sork, basically a bunch of weird sound effects. This leads into a more radio friendly number called Bumblebee, featuring an echoing guitar riff. The effects in the vocals in the chorus are really neat. A bit repetitive, but a rather nice, almost hummable song with an overlying shroud of weirdness.

Next is the almost 18-minute long Dementia. This song has an eerie feeling througout on top of a driving rhythm almost like Pink Floyd's One of These Days. I haven't got a clue as to what this is about as it references dog biscuits, shoes looking out windows, bananas watching TV, dirty dishes, decaying sandwiches in a subway, vacuum cleaners (with sound effects), and toilets (also with sound effects!). The vocals on this piece are also particulary eerie sounding. I don't know if I should call this guy a genius or a nut. Whatever medication he's on, I want some too!

The Moment of Clarity starts off with an odd, slow and dark sounding piano riff. The song sounds sort of like a ballad, but it's just as weird as the last song. Filled with nonsensical lyrics and Robinson's trademark echoed and slightly distorted vocals, the song eventually peaks at the end with a psychedelic guitar solo to fade out the song. Although sloppily constructed, the solo seems to fit the song perfectly in it's overwhelming weirdness.

After a short track reprising the Bumblebee chorus, the seven-part, 13-minute long title track follows. Again, this is another weird and eerie number. To drive the point home, it starts with backmasked lyrics that basically say, "if you think about ladders, you will be dual." Some of my favorites lines in this song include "I sit around and collect jars of sneeze," "Another form of hypnosis, just like boiling water," "The butter is melting all over my table, I just sit there and roll marbles through it," and the vague "numbers can't compare to pipes." Wow.

After the last track is a bonus track that was shelved because there wasn't enough room on the original release of this album on the former defunct mp3.com. It found its way back on this album in a re-release. Again, it's another eerie and weird piece filled with lots of big words that make little sense when strung together in Robinson's lyrics. The lyrics are read out like a beat poetry reading with accompanying music and deep growling sounds in the background (no, nothing like death metal).

This is one of those albums you put on for a bunch of friends and watch them sit there for an hour staring into space with their mouths wide open. Don't forget to give them buckets for the drool.

In the liner notes, Robinson claims inspiration from ironing boards, microfiche readers, and clothes hampers. If I were to sum up Oddities in seven words or less, those would be good choices. So welcome to Superluminal Pachyderm's world, a Carrollian land of strangeness and oddities...

Oddities begins with a variety of echoing human sounds (pops, wahs, the word "start") and leads into a spoken poem called Bags of Pens. No, this is not like the spoken poetry the Moody Blues scattered across their albums. It is more in the realm of a weird postmodernism. Following this strange intro is The Soliloquy, an almost psychedelic pop number with some really strange distorted guitar work, echoing pianos, and odd lyrics lacking any meaning. There is a bit of backmasking in the middle section and the drums are a simple, programmed beat, but not a distraction.

The title track is next and has a drum machine feel very similar to Genesis' Mama, except it is slower. It almost seems like a ripoff, but the song sounds nothing like Genesis, so I'll label this as an inspiration. It isn't in anyway as dark as Mama was, but seems more attune to the previous song, The Soliloquy. Parts of it have a real spacey feel with spacey synth atmospheres and echoing vocals. Other than the similarities to Genesis' Mama, I found this to be an enjoyable listen.

The next track is another spoken poem called End of an Era. The voice is distorted and echoed and the theme is the demise of the dinosaurs. This is followed by The Leviathan and I wondered if it was about a dinosaur based on the poem lead-in, but the lyrics just don't make sense. A recurring theme in the song is the brushing of teeth. Musically, The Leviathan fits the neo-progressive genre, but the nonsensical lyrics are so unordinary for this genre. There is a middle section with French lyrics, and these also make no sense at all. There are lots of eerie synths scattered throughout the song. About the only downside to this song is that the programmed drums are too repetitive and could use some more drum rolls to mix it up a bit. A strange piece, and one of the better ones Robinson has made.

I'm having difficulties at finding words to describe the next song called Cliff of Cotton. It's mostly noise, but there's structure to this noise. It's very eerie and every now and then you here someone saying "what?" There are many distorted voices but most of them are inaudible. Experimental indeed. Another spoken poem with echoed vocals follows called The Pants Treaty of 1707 where I guess a country used popcorn as a defense and lost. Okay.

Idiot! is in a neo-prog/radio-friendly vein, except no radio station on earth would call this mainstream. There is another lyric in this song about popcorn freezing the oncoming revolution, but no mention of a pants treaty. I suppose one could loosely assume that this "idiot" was a member of the aforementioned nation in the previous poem, but as I have noticed, you can't really assume anything with Superluminal Pachyderm. It's just one long weird ride of eerie, computerized music, with some really strange guy singing about who knows what.

The next track, Pre-Potholes and Pre-Peas is an intro the the following song, aptly called Potholes and Peas. It is an assortment of sound effects and eerie synths. It then leads into a conversation between a high-pitched voice and low-pitched voice. The high-pitched voice wants a bouncy top-ten hit and I assume the low-pitched voice is Robinson being himself and eventually giving in leading to the following dance-like number.

Potholes and Peas is the only song on this album that makes sense in that it is a cohesive story about someone in a supermarket who hits a pothole with his shopping cart causing its contents of toothpaste, tea, and peas to fly into a lady's hair. Musically the song begins in an almost Mike & The Mechanics fashion then sounds like something Al Yankovic and Thomas Dolby might come up with. Very little in progressive terms, but a hilarious track well worth the listen.

From pop rock, Superluminal Pachyderm, goes completely progressive with the next seven-part, 15+ minute epic called Ghonk. Again, we're back into some eerie synths and weird, nonsensical, echoed vocals. Robinson actually has an interview on the Superluminal Pachyderm web site that covers what this song is about and it makes no sense at all. Apparently there is something called Ghonks which prevent odd things from happening in the universe and cause it to balance. In Robinson's universe, I can't imagine anything is balanced. It's just strange, followed by more strange, and then even more strange, ad infinitum. And that's what this song is. I'm not even sure what subgenre it could be classified in. It's sort of like a combination of psychedelic, neo-progressive, and even a small part metal. The eerie echoing piano that runs throughout the song is simply beautiful. There is one lyric that sticks out in my mind: "We will drop little tori into your bowl of milk, there is nothing you can do." Cheerios anyone?

Oddities is a remarkable improvement over Lexicographic Lint, especially since there were only four months between releases. Even the almost-spoken vocals have improved considerably, though the use of echoes are constant throughout the album and maybe a bit overdone. The programmed drums are done well, with mostly military precision, but often lack the variety a real drummer would have provided. A lot more progressive than Superluminal Pachyderm's debut, but still needing a good kick in the pants in energy. If you like weird, plodding albums that make absolutely no sense, this one should be a must-have. For the rest of you, Superluminal Pachyderm could take a bit getting used to, is an acquired taste, and may give off an amateurish vibe because of the way it was made entirely on computer with sound samples. I ranked Lexicographic Lint with a rounded-up 2.75. Oddities gets a rounded-up four stars from a 3.5, with the caveat that this isn't for everyone. Oddities is quite odd indeed.

But if you took the time, that old mp3.com had some real gems on it, including some really unusual artists. One of them I discovered was called Superluminal Pachyderm, a one-man project that composed progressive rock music on the computer using samples, a keyboard, a guitar, and music sequencing and editing software. That description in itself was enough to catch my attention. When I first heard the few mp3s that were available, I knew there was something really different about this one. It reeked of the weird and strange.

The sole driving force behind the Superluminal Pachyderm is one Ken Robinson, who apparently does this in his spare time. He released Superluminal Pachyderm's first album, Lexicographic Lint, in March 2000 on mp3.com. I have no idea what lexicographic lint is. There doesn't seem to be any theme having to do with dictionaries, or lexicographers, or lint for that matter. My guess is, and you can sort of pick up on it when you analyze the lyrics, that juxtaposition of unusual words together is one of the driving forces behind the lyrics. Or, the guy is out of his mind. Take your pick.

Prologue starts off the album with a gentle repeating synthesizer line and leads into an endless series of noises and people talking, layered about on the left and right sides of my headphones. The voices make little sense at all giving a prelude of what's to come. I hear ramblings about toilets, toilet paper, waking up between mattresses, and other assorted weirdness. This leads into a spoken poem with highly distorted vocals sounding much like a robot. More voices from the beginning return. Again, this seems to go nowhere. After this, a drum machine kicks in continuing the same theme with the repeating keyboard line. During this stage of the song the second verse of spoken poetry continues. The song segues into an instrumental section. The drums are mixed too high and it kind of ruins the whole song as the keyboard work seems rather interesting in this part, including some effective use of Moog samples. A strange, somewhat interesting, though flawed beginning.

The title track is next. This is a little more interesting, blending pop rock and neo prog, yet not sounding like anything I've ever heard before. It kind of sounds like Thomas Dolby meets early 1980s Saga, but with lyrics that make no sense at all. It's as if Robinson were pulling words out of the air. The programmed drums might be a bit of a distraction during drum rolls, but otherwise blends in with military precision throughout the song.

Can't Get Nothing kicks in with a rather disjointed melody that leads into what I can best describe as dance music. There are endless amounts of highly distorted voices and backmasking throughout the song. The weird vocals significantly distract the listener from the simple, yet effective, dance-style rhythm of this song. Apparently, the whole meaning of this song was an inability to get anything at a store. Simple, silly, a bit fun, but hardly intellectually engaging. Prog meets pop dance, if you can imagine it.

Next comes the song that lifts this album from the doldrums, Trail to Grytvikken, an 18+ minute long adventure into the depths of insanity. It starts off with some deep bass sounds, weird voices, and then kicks into a simple repeating piano/keyboard melody in the neo prog vein. This leads into a ghostly keyboard line with waves crashing, radio noises, and other unidentified sounds. The third section of this song is an amalgam of progressive pop styles, but the strangeness of the vocals makes it feel like something completely different. I sense some 1980s Genesis in some of this, but it's just a hint. The beginning section of the song returns during the fourth section. This song actually effectively repeats themes in a nice way. More weird lyrics, more repeating themes, then the ending section is an instrumental that incorporates all of the preceding musical themes together for a long three-minute fade out. Considering the technique Robinson uses to construct these songs, I'm kind of amazed at this one.

Turn Another Page is another piece that I'm having a hard time labeling. Nonsense layered over a neo prog/pop prog foundation, but that description hardly does it justice. The piano plays a big part of the overall sound of this piece. The chorus sections make the song seem like it dropped off a cliff into silliness, with overtones of amateurism. Still, even so, there is something appealing to me here.

This Is Nonsense is sort of like an electro-pop number with laughing, woo-woos (like Curly Howard, seriiously!), and idiotic, nonsensical lyrics. The nice background soundscape is it's only connection to prog in any possible way. The singing is pretty bland and sounds like someone getting up in the morning. This is definitely nonsense, but not the good kind.

All the Cream Cheese in the World, although a pretty neat title, is actually a repeat of the second section of Trail to Grytvikken containing a ghostly, repeating keyboard line, crashing waves, distorted vocals, radio noises, and other unidentified sounds. I swear I hear an echoed, distorted flushing toilet somewhere in that mess. The song continues in this manner for sometime before programmed drums kick in. It's sort of like a reprisal of Trail to Grytvikken, but part of me thinks it is just filler for a project that has run out of ideas.

The final song of the album is Epilogue. This simply repeats the themes introduced in the album's Prologue, but in a more condensed form. It has more spoken poetry in a robotized voice and what sounds like various radio sound effects. It then builds up with a lot of laughing and lines from previous songs all mixed together. It ends with the word "stop" being repeated over and over and a popping sound.

The later versions of this album, including the one currently available include a bonus track called Clothespin Bag. This was apparently an instrumental section that was to be a part of Trail to Grytvikken. This is probably the most progressive song on the album. Funny how some of the best songs some artists make turn out to be bonus tracks. For programmed drums, it almost sounds like a real drummer is in this, as it is rather complex. Again, I can't think of anyone I could compare this with, but the keyboard work, underlaid with piano, is quite eerie sounding. A lost gem that fortunately found its way into reality as a bonus track.

As one might suspect with completely computer-generated music, it is precise, almost machine-like. This is particularly noticeable on the drums. This is kind of similar to Magellan's first two albums that featured programmed drums, but these don't sound as corny. However, they could use a little work. The vocals are often echoed and tend to be dissonant. Still, they seem to fit this music nicely. Robinson generates a lot of strange sounds and there is a sort of eerieness to the whole thing. Like I said before, the lyrics are nonsense. They might make an interesting subject of a literary thesis someday, but for most of you, it might be a bit difficult to get through. There is also a sense of amateurism throughout the album, as the production could use a little work. But that kind of expectation from someone who does this as a hobby might be unfair, but is worth bringing out.

The best way I can describe this is to imagine yourself sitting in a comfortable chair with your mouth hanging open for an entire hour. At least that's the effect I think Robinson was aiming for. If so, he succeeded. This is not for everyone. Those of you interested in weird stuff might want to consider this album, otherwise I would start with Superluminal Pachyderm's Sea of Peas album first, which is just as weird, but better musically and production-wise. I like this enough to give it three stars (probably 2.75 would be more appropriate). Partly good, partly flawed, definitely weird.