Child Bite, as their name implies, are sneaky little bastards. Judging this album by its cover (scary Berlin Dadaism), their cited influences (The Jesus Lizard, Devo and the Dead Kennedys), and the adjectives in their press release ("adrenaline-laden", "psychotic", "avant garde"), you'd expect a careening, slobbering beast, incapable of any degree of finesse or subtlety. But that's how they get you, their songs working into your veins like some virulent form of sepsis. The Living Breathing Organ Summer is a grower, and that's where the sneakiness comes in.
Titles like "Age of Vacuum Trotters" and "Mates in Torso" reinforce the expectation of absurdist punk sludge but instead my first comparison was to... Wolf Parade? Possibly because of vocalist Shawn Knight's voice; it's somewhere in between Spencer Krug's distinctive yelp and David Yow's feral slaver. Tracks like "Odd Inn" and "Paws Perilous" make great use of his varied delivery, from enervated warble to shouting call and response. And it doesn't hurt to have a positively deadly rhythm section, either: both drummer Danny Sperry and bassist Sean Clancy (who, if I had to call it, would win MVP status here) harness both the ADD dance of Les Savy Fav and lethal lockstep of The Jesus Lizard.
But what makes all this most exciting (and virulent) is how well it all fits together. The arrangements are both consistently strong and surprisingly varied, making excellent use of contrapuntal dynamics with some interesting sonic touches – standout tracks like "Barks to Addle" and "Black Pyramid Mausoleum" manage to be both hook-laden and remarkably subtle, adding strings, horns, and wheezing farfisa to the usual distorted bass and palm-muted surf guitar.
And maybe that's what's sneakiest of all: with all the requisite weirdness, you wouldn't thing these songs would be great songs. By keeping their tunes compact (only "Grotesque Holiday" passes the four-minute mark), you don't initially notice how elliptical they are, trading typical bombast for something much more powerful. The Living Breathing Organ Summer is without a doubt both toxic and communicable–in the best way possible.
[Child Bite Myspace]
[Buy The Living Breathing Organ Summer from Joyful Noise]
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