Duck Season

I’ve been holding off reviewing this one, for two reasons. One is that people seem to be very divided as to whether they like it or they don’t, and why agitate them by telling them the opposite of what they believe.

The second reason is that I have no idea of whether I think it’s good album or not.

That these guys are from Israel is a pluspoint: anything that gives that lot a shot in the arm to start making decent music gets my vote. But what I can’t get past is that it sounds like it’s trying too hard to be quirky, to be oh-so-Suomi. All too often they seem to retreat into this little soundbank and add Nintendoid bleeps, seasick warbles, random notes.

I’ve said countless times before that the whole freestyle, post-Suomi thing either works or it doesn’t. One of the subgenre’s strengths is its sheer postmodernity – that you know it’s taking the piss out of something, and being a bit deliberately weird.

This twisted-reflection on the form you’re working with (dance music, in this case) should (if we’re lucky) change the platform’s parameters and lead you into a new space, to create new art, defined by its own new terms. And while people like Texas Faggot, Pelin Pala, Odd Harmonic and Eraser vs Yojalka have all definitely achieved that at some points in their career, Crazy Duck’s don’t.

Don’t get me wrong, there are some nice moments on this album, and it would definitely do the business on the right dancefloor at the right party at the right time on the right drugs. The problem is that musically, it’s forced.

Crazy Ducks: all technique and form, but no soul.