The Cellar Family clearly revel in the aural havoc they can wreak over the course of an EP. Their latest is ‘Jumbo’ and it’s more twisted-sounding than ever.
From the opening discordance before ‘In The Garden’ gets up and running, the mood is an unsettling one, and brilliantly apt for what feels like a trip through the depraved dwelling of a family of cinematic psychopaths. Moments of quiet apprehension are eviscerated by the violence of the instruments, a restless sense of rhythm pervades each track and lyrics are spat and snarled out with a savage animosity. Or, at least, they seem to be on the first listen. Then you begin to make out what’s being said. “You were in my dream again, radiant as ever” is unearthed in the opening number and “if there’s no heaven, then kill me where I stand” in the second. Incongruous as it appears at first, there’s a depth to the expression here that could be missed amongst the chaotic energy. This force, with its unruly character, seems to emphasise the universal emotions being voiced; emotions grappling with desire, mortality and loss which are by their very nature chaotic, fantastically echoed in the musical lawlessness. This is epitomised in the tortured wail at the end of ‘Heaven’, which could have been howled from a storm-ravaged heath, so mad and sorrowful does it sound.
They also do an admirable line in all-out bedlam, however. ‘Malcolm Parker’ has a spirit that’s out to lunch. ‘Beard Of Bees’ is a rip-roaringly bonkers serenade to the owner of an unusual facial adornment, while ‘Pinhead’ bursts into life by declaring that “you’re the kind of human I’ve been waiting for” in its faintly threatening sneer. It’s another sentiment that surprises, but this time only because it’s so patently at odds with the band’s material. They’re waiting for no-one on this record as they forge their unruly way through the undergrowth, and whether you’re along for the ride seems a matter of complete indifference to them.
An EP of robust energy and originality, with strong potential to leave the listener at a complete loss as to what they’ve experienced when they come out the other side.