Caspar And Mollusk - Twig

(Cosmic, 1995)

This is primarily a solo single by Chris Ballew from the Presidents of the United States of America, but “Twig” features some varispeed, “Drinking Out of Cups”-style free association from Beck as its intro and outro. The rest of the A-side is heavily-distorted fuzzpop/thrash… your standard indieguy four-track nonsense, not too far from the tossed-off experiments of Beck’s own Stereopathetic Soul Manure album. There is some fine lead guitar at the beginning of “Lint Cake” before it decays into a creepy lounge-from-hell number – clarinet moans and dissonant piano stabs – that sounds like the sort of soundtrack work the David Baker-led Mercury Rev might have done, with vocals courtesy of an unhealthy cat. An interesting and all-over-the-place record, but the air of belabored weirdness surrounding these demo-quality songs makes it hard to recommend it too enthusiastically.