The eponymous debut album by Soft Hair is the oddest, if slightly disconcerting, of affairs. It’s a mind-altering, psychoactive shot of absinthe with Noel Fielding as the Green Fairy, ready to guide you through the icky swamp.
The world of Sam Dust (LA Priest/Late Of The Pier) and Connan Mockasin is undoubtedly weird and exotic. It’s a synth driven reality that shimmers with electronic glitches, dreamy falsetto and soulful bass lines.
The album, recorded over a five-year period, is unconventional in composition and structure yet alluring in its post-modern and surreal wonkiness.
The artwork warrants a mention. The cover depicts the duo as a metonymic pair of burnt orange Adams – complete with a coiled boa constrictor and forbidden fruit. Think Childlike Empress cross-pollinated with an Oompa Loompa.
Although tracks like Relaxed Lizard and Jealous Lies bubble with exuberance there’s something wrong in Fantasia. There’s a sinister luridness to slow-jam number Lying Has To Stop, which features the troubling lyrics “I like to watch you run, but I’d never touch your bum.” Tracks I.V. and L.I.V. are solemn prayers to some celestial deity and are full of sadness and isolation.
If you’re into freaky pillow talk, then rest your head here a while.
By George Hyde
