Unbalanced Grass

Unbalanced Grass

It’s 2010. Summer, which – considering this is Britain – means that:

i) it’s cold

ii) it’s raining

Oh, and there’s a new Unbalanced Grass album, too.

Not that any of the songs on this album are entirely new. For the past few years, Pooka – with the occasional aid of Morti – has been writing songs, often for the odd community known as FAWM, but generally for his own amusement. Songs like Melted Into Sound have been around for years, but still haven’t lost their sting. Bathroom Floor places tongue firmly in cheek, Dalek sounds better every time it’s played, and Lonely Caveman bursts out of random white-noise improvisation. Sessions in Pooka’s attic studio use the reverberations of a well-loved acoustic guitar, while sessions in Morti’s studio put a fresh spin on things – where did the thrash metal of I Don’t Care originate? That wasn’t the intention, and yet here it presents itself, as natural as anything.

Through the past three years, these songs come and they go – but these stay. Eventually, they come to a head, and Straight From The Goat – the aforementioned album – is that head.

These sessions yield the songs. Pooka’s innocent voice and gentle guitar thrums wrestle with Morti’s spunky instrumental stylings while Matt’s deadpan background mumbles add the third dimension. On this album, they are joined by Pooka’s girlfriend – a born jazz singer – on a metal track, and Australian cousin – who only sings karaoke – on a folk track which became punk. That is the way of things. An inspired chorus at the end of a cover of crowd-pleasing Weightlifting... the echo of a genuinely soulful “yes” during Lonely Caveman... the sexual innuendo of growing wings on one’s hips during Untitled. Unbalanced Grass does all these, and more. Think of Straight From The Goat as a showcase for all these.

This is the first Unbalanced Grass album you can download – and it is their best yet. “It’s the first Unbalanced Grass album you can download,” says Pooka, “and it’s our best yet.” Proof, if anything, that the best Unbalanced Grass album yet is something you can, indeed, download.

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