Dave Cloud & Gospel of Power

Dave Cloud apparently missed the seminar on how to take a conventional approach to music. He didn't actually record his first album until he was 20 years into his musical career, and through his many bizarre onstage appearances over the years has created a persona that's part musical shaman, part Captain Beefheart. That makes for a musician whose eccentricities are sometimes more memorable than his music, and that's almost the case for Cloud. Practice in the Milky Way is a sprawling mess of an album, although that didn't happen by accident. Instead, Cloud barks his way through 20 tracks of fuzzy garage rock backed by the Gospel of Power, bringing with him a sense of humour that Frank Zappa would approve of. The act does wear a little thin by the midpoint because he's simply re-treading old, well-travelled ground, but ultimately his charm wins out in the end.