Buzzin Music

The Bran Flakes - I Have Hands (album review)

Formed in 1992 amidst tape and fanzine trading scenes, The Bran Flakes aka Otis Fodder and Mildred Pitt, already have seven releases of zany mash-ups and poppy audio collages. ‘I Have Hands‘ brings Lawrence Welk, Mister Rogers, Van Halen and Strawberry Shortcake to the same party.

One track uses Dolly Parton’s “9 to 5” at its centre, while juxtaposing the familiar guitar pluck from Survivor’s “Eye of the Tiger,” and then ends with The Osmonds singing about freedom!  Strange? yes.  Whacky? definitely.  Interesting? …

Call them the cover boys of Cool and Strange Music or simply misfits with giant paper-mâché heads, these boys have amassed a cult following state-side for their child-like concoctions that evoke flashbacks of a sugar-induced high whilst watching Sesame Street.

It’s been six years since the Bran Flakes last release; and I Have Hands is an album that’s left me so confused and bewildered, I’m quite happy for it to be my first dabble in their musically apocalyptic body of work. Any more would be an over load.

The Bran Flakes‘ I Have Hands is an album swarming with ideas and influences: one minute nuggets that must be magnetic for all the cultural sound-bites and musical genres they accumulate.  Beat boxing sits alongside glam pop, whilst 1950’s TV hosts provide some inappropriate commentary. Disco battles with broken beat, whilst Bollywood horn sections chirp in when you thought things couldn’t get any messier.

Perhaps this is one of those bodies of music that hasn’t made that transition being performed live to album well. Their shows are epiphany inducing, feel good live performances which are all cabaret, marching bands and giant paper-mache heads.

Whilst live I would be waving a giant foam hand, getting into that cartoon theme tune, bubble gum pop mentality, in my bedroom it’s lost in translation.

Only when I take this out on my headphones do I appreciate it, sound tracking our multicultural society with indicators from every corner of the globe, all pointing at positive thinking and innocent highs. They tread water in comic samples like an early DJ Shadow mix, cluttered with the ridiculous and the bizarre.

Whilst Otis Fodder and Mildred Pitt’s eclecticism isn’t for me, I admire their approach to challenging pop music and their ideas about performance and having a good time. Whilst dancing like an idiot presumably.

For more information and to listen to The Bran Flakes, visit The Bran Flakes MySpace page.

The Bran Flakes – I Have Hands is released on Illegal Records on 24th February 2009.