SCHIZO FUN ADDICT Diamond (Sudden Bliss)
From a distance this really didn't look promising - what are the chances of me liking a band with a name like Schizo Fun Addict? How likely are they to be some hedonistic comedy rave-rock band whose music seems designed solely to make my teeth itch, in the unpleasant manner of Lowfinger and Elevator Suite?
Happily, Schizo Fun Addict are far from the aforementioned. They're a Manhattan quartet who dabble merrily in all manner of lo-fi on this, their second long player. Opening track "Dominion Stungun" shambles semi-acoustically in the delightful stumbling manner of the last Pastels album. "The Goldheart Mountaintop Queen Directory" is an obscurity dug out from the dustier recesses of the Guided By Voices back catalogue. "Neo Theme" is gorgeous distant melody obscured by all manner of interesting distortions, a pleasant echo of My Bloody Valentine's titanic "Loveless". On "Chakra Tease" bizarre dialogue samples meet jazz cut-ups and manic, free-form drumming. And the album is rounded off with a couple of marvellous low-budget Aphex Twin-style excursions into electronic terrorism. Which makes "Diamond" a consistently interesting, entertaining listen for the listener familiar with the regions of the farther-out. Even if Schizo Fun Addict's current best trick is to bind together a selection of very passable references to other artists it's still a fine starting point for potentially great things to come.