Album Review
Electric Würms - Musik, Die Schwer zu Twerk
3 StarsTheir six meticulously constructed psychedelic soundscapes that drag you along on their intoxicating journey are, more than anything, relentless.
The element of risk that comes with doing a side-project is inevitable. There’s the impending comparison to the vocalist’s first band, the once-loyal fans churning out incensed tweets – “Can’t believe Sonny Moore does dubstep now #sellout” - and the ever present threat that it will fall flat on its face because the only people who paid it any attention were those fans. From Thom Yorke to Death Cab’s Ben Gibbard, everyone has had a go at the side project. With each effort standing in its own right, why tie them so tightly to their forerunners? Why not send them into the music world with a clean slate, free from the pressures of top 40 hits and the fan pages waiting to dissect their every creative endeavour? Why not.
Electric Würms are Wayne Coyne and Steven Drozd of The Flaming Lips collaborating with four members of Linear Downfall, though this is beside the point. The debut offering, ‘Musik, Die Schwer zu Twerk,’ is a self-described collection of ‘hypnotic space Bible readings’ crafted by ‘the chosen ones’ and on paper, sounds the antithesis of a good time. Thankfully, it isn’t.
Listening to a kaleidoscope is a circumstance that’s unlikely to ever materialise, but it’s one that ‘Musik, Die Schwer zu Twerk’ will take you ever so slightly closer to experiencing. Hit play, close your eyes and give it a second before you’re transported into that cylindrical world of colour. Surrounded by angular shards of plastic stained to varying intensities, you begin to tumble. Falling into the perfectly crafted spaces one after the other you realise that you’re completely lost in someone else’s world. They know exactly what they’re doing and you most certainly do not.
‘They,’ of course, are Electric Würms, and their six meticulously constructed psychedelic soundscapes that drag you along on their intoxicating journey are, more than anything, relentless. Opener ‘I Only See Clouds’ avoids all attempts at familiarity until its final quarter, by which point you’re not quite sure where you are anymore and ‘Futuristic Hallucination’ has already segued into ‘The Bat.’ ‘Living’, the welcome break that it is, strolls along at a more leisurely pace, dabbling in the more sociable side of the album’s repertoire, but none are quite so hypnotic as ‘Transform!!!’. It has a groove that the other tracks lack, a melody that makes the hairs on the back of your neck stand on end and more than anything, it has that kaleidoscopic feel.
‘Musik, Die Schwer zu Twerk’ is clearly well thought out - it even has a Yes cover thrown in for good measure (‘Heart Of The Sunrise’) – and though Electric Würms may not be breaking boundaries any time soon, they’re doing this on their watch and no one else’s.
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