Alike Merzbow ‘Eucalypse’ packaging, this is probably the prize winning package of the week: two heavy stock pieces hold together a full color printed accordion booklet with the CD somewhere in an envelop. Aspidistrafly is a duo of April Lee (voice, computer, acoustic guitar, harmonium, glockenspiel, music box) and Ricks Ang (electric guitar, acoustic guitar, computer, piano, percussion and melodica). Its not easy to pin down Aspidistrafly’s music into a specific genre, which of course is a good thing. Can you imagine Taylor Deupree or Richard Chartier playing dreamy popmusic? With some female vocalist? Well, there you go. That is Aspidistrafly is about, I think. The wordless singing of Lee is at times too heavenly for my taste, but when words are used its much nicer, even when the words are mere textures and not there to be understood. Underneath the laptop boils the kettle, cracks the hum, in order to make this album definitely aside from the world of real popmusic. At times I wasreminded of Beequeen’s latest CD ‘Sandancing’, which holds for me a similar combination of pop and microsound, but whereas the Dutch boys produce pop and microsound, I’d say Aspidistrafly is microsound and pop. A small but important distinction, but also the variation between the tracks of Aspidistrafly is a little less than with the bees. Its more a homogenous record, which is just long enough not too repeated all the ideas again, as that a danger this music has. A well made release, both the music and the package, very refined.

By Frans de Waard