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Joe must have thought this was a clever play on words … until we got locked down and it became a bit portentous.

Gideon has been around a while and had a hit with his sister, known as The Shark (in musical circles anyway).

Gideon’s style is a sing-songy way of speaking over dark, layered music. For this new one he’s teamed up with Jim Sclavunos (Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds/Grinderman), who’s a busy man – this is the second album we’ve had that he’s worked on recently – so it sounds very Nick Cave, if Cave was a bit louder. Gideon, Gris-de-Lin and Sclavunos play all the instruments.

It’s very appealing and has an end of the world ominous feel, though hugely entertaining. The opening song is the splendidly named Expandable Mandible but other tracks include Comet Coming Down and Liquid Sky, all sounding to varying degrees like Nick Cave. We like Scaredy Cat (almost a kids’ song, but with dark lyrics). The more thoughtful Quack No Duck is good too.

Instruments include saxophones, an antique piano, a “cranky” old synth-vibraphone rescued from the dump, heavenly choirs and a range of percussion instruments.

 

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