Askeleton

Askeleton is the brainchild of one man and the Angry Album – or – Psychic Songs is his second album, unfortunately its title is a bit of a misnomer, these songs may be psychic (or paranormal) but they certainly don’t come off as angry. In fact this collection of almost "cute” pop tunes, is more quirky then anything else, and generally the quirkier they are the more interesting they are. The few times he ventures into more mellow mainstream fare, the tracks are instantly disappointing. Askeleton borrows liberally from several musical genres and yet manages to make these thefts his own — whether it be the heavily processed vocals, which are reminiscent of some of the more eclectic new wave offerings of the ’80s or the similarly low-tech synth sounds (again, of two decades past) which sneak into several of the tracks. Knol Tate sings, "I’ve seen the future and the future is tonight” — apparently the future is recycling the past and turning it into something new again. The inherent problem with ’80s-esque lo-fi (even revisited), however, is that it is easy to go too far, quickly surpassing the interestingly quirky and landing in territory of grating (track five, "Futureman to Presentman” is an excellent example of pushing the envelope too far.) The Angry Album — or — Psychic Songs sounds like the offspring of a Ween and Stereolab coupling, shamelessly sassed up with Converse high tops and a new romantic-style blazer, probably best taken in smaller than full album-length doses.