Nonsense music is a grand tradition, and it tends to operate on an inverted bell curve in relation to the artist's position in the music industry. At the far left end lies this Inca Eyeball record, coming from the 'underground' anti-tradition of absurd nonsense, shared (at least in spirit) by artists such as Caroliner Rainbow, Sockeye, parts of the Very Good Records roster ... there's a commitment to the craft, and I don't consider it to be 'novelty' music but just, well, stupid. In a good way! (On the other end of the curve would be established commercial artists doing crazy career suicide acts like Van Morrison's contractual obligation ringworm recordings, and I can't really think of many other examples there; the middle would be the wide gamut of novelty music, I suppose, which is generally lacking in non-effort). There's 117 songs on this Inca Eyeball LP, all improvised on the spot by Phil Todd and Joincey in 1995 and moving through such visions as 'Yellow Silt in the Crimson Flow', 'I'm in a Sieve', and 'I'm Gonna Get My Head Kicked In!'. Except 'THESE AREN'T SONGS', according to the proclamation on the back cover, without any explanation why. I guess improvisations don't count? I had a band in high school that sounded almost exactly like this, acoustic plinking and extemporaneous babbling, though our songs were a bit longer. There's a pleasure in listening to this, sure, and little point in singling out specific outbursts. It's hard to actually tell which tracks are which for they really run together. Go find this and buy all of their other albums too; then start an Inca Eyeball cover band and spread the gospel.
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