Now this is a really, really odd one. Two 18-year-olds, freshly signed to Reprise Records, in a band that’s about as commercial as Anal Cunt. Not that they sound anything like the big AC, it’s just they’ve as much chance of appearing on daytime radio as the band with a bad name. Idiotpilot essentially sound like Kid A-era Radiohead, strung out on LSD and mixed up with Deftones. At times it’s a mix which sounds really interesting – guitar riffs tend to drift in and out and some samples and loops are added for interesting effect. It means you can get guitar based tracks like ‘A Day in the Life of a Pool Shark’ mixed up with breathy dance songs like ‘Les Lumieres’, while screaming efforts like ‘The Violent tango’ confusingly sit alongside.
As an album the switches are less than subtle, meaning the record fails to flow particularly well. It’s also extremely confusing, leaving me wondering not only how to describe this band, but also how they’d describe themselves. It’s ok being a jack of all trades, but it’s no good if you’re a master of none. ‘Strange We Should Meet Here’ shows obvious talent. It’s a record by two young kids with imagination and they’ve used their collective brains here to come up with some pretty original stuff. But that doesn’t instantly make it any good – and while I like my music to explore new sounds and challenge the grey matter, this has just left me baffled.
www.idiotpilot.com
Reprise
Paul