Who’d have thunk post-rock could be fun? Possibly named after the Muppet Show song, “Mah Nah Mah Nah,” Menomena are a bunch of supergeeks from Portland who developed a computer program called Deeler that uses loops to “facilitate improvisational recording,” according to programmer Mark Knopf. Sounds as exciting as chemistry lab? Much more so, in fact, in that revelatory “oh wow” feeling you get when you discover something new, and realize by looking at the brilliant album art that the name comes from letters rearranged from the words “The First Menomena Album.”. Nor are they as wacky as their muppet name suggests, as many of their songs are fairly dark. However, their clever innovations and diverse sounds are indeed fun, like a creepy carnival funhouse.
Post-rock doesn’t sufficiently describe their freewheeling collage of experimental art rock and prog pop. They loop and layer and mix electronic songs until they decide they like it, and then learn how to play them acoustically. It’s a gimmick somewhat similar to Lake Trout’s recent approach to recreating drum ‘n’ bass electronica with their instruments. The results sound loosely influenced by Radiohead, Beta Band, Mogwai and Tortoise with hip hop beats and electronica, but with vocals and pop elements like Broken Social Scene. The diverse influences result in a sound that is utterly fresh.
There’s some great tunes here too. “The Late Great Libido” is like a Britpop song, but not boring. “Twenty Cell Revolt” begins suspensefully with pounding drums and Morphine-like baritone sax, punctuated with succinct outbursts of soaring, melodic choruses. “Strongest Man In The World” kicks off with deliciously menacing, echo-laden organ, pausing for melancholy piano breaks, like Portishead gone schizo. This will probably be reissued in ’04 and top everyone’s lists. Don’t wait for label marketing campaigns to tell you when it’s cool to like something, snatch it up now!
