The Bloomington, IN,
neo-psychedelic
folk
/
indie rock
collective
Impossible Shapes
have crafted a dark and whimsical Pagan and pseudo-Christian/Egyptian imagery-laden oddity of a record that somehow manages to balance the
British folk
meanderings of bands like
Pentangle
and
Forest
with the volatile energy of the late-'70s
proto-punk
movement.
Horus
, their second release for
Secretly Canadian
and fifth overall, is a celebration of the veiled tinderbox of weirdness that is the American Midwest. Singer/songwriter/guitarist
Chris Barth
is the kind of misfit mystic that can deliver a line like "Lighting a candle to Pan/Smoking at night in the van" without the slightest bit of irony, and his imagery-heavy yet strangely simple lyricism is more upfront here than on last year's significantly louder
We Like It Wild
. That's not to say that the band is incapable of ferocity -- the glorious
"Survival"
is the best
Velvet Underground
song never made -- but
the Impossible Shapes
are not reverential two-chord revivalists; rather they are accomplished musicians who are just as comfortable championing jazzy,
Bert Jansch
-influenced
ballads
(
"The Princess"
) as they are
Television
-infused angst
rock
.
isn't for everybody, but fans of
the Violent Femmes
,
Incredible String Band
Danielson Famile
, and
Faun Fables
will find much to love here. ~ James Christopher Monger