Birthday

Pom Poko release their debut album, Birthday, via Bella Union. Between the quartet’s sweetly punky melodies and disco-fried art-rock eruptions, a spirit of free-firing, balls-out individuality courses through this exhilarating debut.

The band’s own bad-ass-ery is writ large on album opener "Theme1," which locates a sweet spot between Deerhoof and Battles as singer Ragnhild issues loud, clear rebel yells over Martin’s math-rock guitar. Singles "My Blood" and "Follow The Lights" layer seductively sweet melodies over squalls of sound, while the funk-fired "My Work Is Full of Art" offers a kind of mission statement: “I’ll just let freaky surround me,” sings Fangel.

Elsewhere, Pom Poko’s instinctive dynamism teases uplifting thrills from boundary-melting experiments. Glacial shards of guitar bounce off steel-drum flurries on the rapid-fire serotonin fix of "Blue," before the sweetly infatuated "Honey" comes sequenced next to the thrashing tonal lurches of "Crazy Energy Night." The sing-song title-track spikes the ranks of sweetly sad birthday songs with a rebellious sting (“I’m not your bitch!”), while "Daytripper" is a commanding come-on from a band who are no more likely to mince their words than limit their range.

If U Want Me 2 Stay resembles The Tra La La Song retooled as a sci-fi cyber-pop anthem of carefree defiance, while "Peachy" closes the album with an exultant melody and one last declaration of transformative independence: “Watch me as I shape shift.” LP - 180 Gram Vinyl housed in Gatefold Sleeve with Download.