I anticipated something fairly noisy given the cover and involvement of +DOG+ persons, but this is quite different, or at least an album which makes sense as being approximately descended from Expandobrain - who were amazing, for those of you who remain stubbornly unconverted. Intensive Studies are a little more informal, maybe a little more raggedy around the edges, but it's roughly the same psychological landscape. What we have are songs played, possibly even improvised on the spot by a band of guitar, bass, drums and vocals. There's an occasional bum note or missed queue and not all of the songs end at quite the same speed as when they set out, so it could almost be a rehearsal recording, although the sound quality is exceptionally clear. I'd say it reminds me of Pavement, except I haven't heard much Pavement and only have a general impression of what they sounded like. I won't say it's lo-fi because that seems kind of insulting to me. More than anything, Perfectly (ab)Normal reminds me of at least a couple of bands of which I myself was a member, so technically we're talking up to the job at hand rather than anything flashy and definitely no guitar solos. Specifically it reminds me of at least a couple of bands of which I myself was a member and which had been listening to a hell of a lot of Warsaw and early Joy Division demos, although it doesn't really sound like Joy Division beyond some vague awareness of their having existed. Lyrically it makes me think of Steve Albini, inhabiting that same twilight land of screwy, slightly upsetting folk narratives of Biblical reality and rural feuds. Without seeming like it does a whole lot, Perfectly (ab)Normal really gets under your skin.
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