Review of Are You A Cat? "Octopus Release"

Are You A Cat? - Octopus Release CD, Goat Bros 2009, number 77 of 232 (strangely soothing)

This is my favorite release of 2009.

Right now I am listening to it and raving about it to my wife.

This disc brought back a wave of memories.

It is bouncy, catchy, tripped out and funky, hip to the tip and moves so smooth I think I hear Don Cornelius coming back from the dead just to host them on this Saturday afternoon tv and tell the Source to give it one hundred and ten mics.

Josh and Jason (who are Are You A Cat?) managed to time travel me back over twenty plus years to my mid 80's youth with this disc and I love it. Just off the top my head I am thinking electro, synth pop, Prince, post punk disco hybrids, Ready For The World, Newcleus, funk, British Electric Foundation, Electric Dreams soundtrack, Level 42, Section 25, Heaven 17 (Eighties bands loved numbers), Andre Cymone and too many others.

My first job was washing dishes at a college during summer. As an awkward chunky white guy, naive burb kid working with a crew of hip collegiate athletes most of whom were from Newark and Philly. This cd reminds me of the day the Hobart died and we were swamped in the dish room and hours of scrubbing pots and pans. Proud source of my first nickname, Pots. In fact to this day if you were to shout," Jim!", I probably wouldn't bother to look. If you were to shout out "Pots!" not only would people look at you strangely but I would be eyeballin like a broken compass trying to find you. But I digress. so we worked hard and I was invited to take a break in the sweltering concrete bunker of a well...shit, come to think of it, it was just a sweltering concrete bunker, listening to the Cars, Roxanne Roxanne answer records and the new UTFO.

While I am typing this I am listening to the cd again.

No track titles but track one should be a radio hit all over the place. Deft vocals that make no sense to me, compressed and tight funky guitar with killer lead breaks and synth flourishes. Hear that drum machine? I think it's a Linn. Think "Controversy". It's that good.

"Hey Jim, what about Michael Jackson?" ummm well he died and honestly I didn't care for him after Off The Wall. Yes, that's right, a member of Sparkle Girl is at the ready to debate for hours the position that OTW was the true pinnacle of MJ's artistry (yes, you heard me) and Thiller by comparison is a waste that sucked up way too much cultural space then and now, since he died you know. I'm with Chris Rock, Prince versus Michael?, Prince won.

Any Michael Jackson memories I might have I imagine to be about the same as millions of others memories about him. When I was fifteen I saw Prince on the Purple Rain tour (my Mom had stood in line for tickets, to this day I still try to imagine that picture). I remember betting with guy and his girlfriend on the opening song. I lost. Sweet, strong sinsemilla from in front of me and a couple decides to fuck on the concrete stairs three (not two, not four) people to my left. I'm pretty sure my memory of that is different from my sister (third from the left).

I just hit replay again.

Track two: nice descending scale into thumpin' booty bass and that wonderful lead guitar, chanting vocals rhyme about sidewalks and bicycles and sisters keepin on. Oh and it mentions acid bath. It's true what they say. Pot is the gateway drug to acid not heroin. If the first track is the Soul Train radio hit this is the club banger with tight clipped funky guitar and throbbing bass synth with odd mentions of jangaroo. I don't know what the fuck a jangaroo is but I've listened to this nine minute track three times now trying to figure it out.

Track three kicks in with a lovely synth melody and sequenced pulsing bass line and that hallmark of futurist electro: vocoder (NOT AUTOTUNE BUT THAT IS ANOTHER RANT) vocals. Spinning out of control and escalating like a tripped out vocoder/synth epic should

This cd sort of hits me in three parts. Each seemingly corresponding to various sonic cues buried in my deep memory. It also brings to mind several of those critical catchphrases I have always loved.

First three tracks are absolutely fucking awesome. Hit single, druggy club stomper then hit em up with the moody pop midpoint but what happens when these tendencies are taken to extremes of sonic catchiness and trickery. Doesn't it get a tad, too much. Hell yes! That apparently explains Track Four. 22 relentess minutes of cowbells, whistles and synth wooshes. Sounds burble and bubble and toil and leap out at you. It's great and when I finish typing this I'm gonna have a go at remixing it for my own damn pleasure. This is for those who remember twenty minute long electronic tunes before the word Techno reared it's head.

If there is any other thing I can think of it has to be my thoughts as the fourth track comes to a swirling stop. Where the hell is that other staple of classic eighties albums? Which one? Why, the poorly thought out detour into cod reggae pastiche!

Don't worry. Almost as a bonus track for my psyche at this point the fifth track is a horribly bland reggae lite collection of familiar themes that sound like a freakish wedding band medley played by the group in Welcome To The Dollhouse. Twice was enough. I have done my part for the cause. Remember when compact discs first came out and every album seemed to have that one track you realized the skip button was for: this is that track and I thank them for it.

Horrible 80's lightweight electro synth pop lite funk collage or fucking brilliant realisation of a particular and for myself peculiarly odd and moving strain of musical hybrids?

If you know me you know that I am hoping for both.