The Pheromoans - Wyrd Psearch

Get these guys a drink - this new record for Upset the Rhythm marks the 18th year of The Pheromoans chipping away at their own coalface. All things considered, that's both highly impressive and outrageously belligerent. Wyrd Psearch might reasonably rank as their 13th long player, and it provides exactly what you'd hope for from an album that arrives that deep into a band's operation - a little bit of the familiar gold; a little bit of something new to keep you coming back. The new in this case is that Wyrd Psearch plays with what might be considered a relatively straight bat for a band of Pheromoans abstruse ilk. The songs - yes, songs! - are kinda sleek and hooky, maybe even with a chorus or two if you're generous enough with your estimation of what a chorus is. And more proto-indie than bedroom synthpop operatives now there's a drummer in their midsts. You wouldn't exactly call them pro, but the amateurism now comes with a particular kind of sheen you might not have experienced from them before. And the familiar? Well, that lies right there in that snarky MES-like title, and of course, we've still Russell Walker at the mic, a guy I'm pretty much convinced was born to crack me up (and it wont just be our shared Coventry connections). The witticisms and off-beat observations abound, Walker sometimes stand-up, sometimes just absolutely fed up. What it adds up to is another primo example of DIY self-determination that we might never have asked for and would have been far worse off without as a result. The flowers in the dustbin? The shit that won't quit! Roll on the next 18 years.