MAate

A heavenly choir overrun by space insects, a missionary church bell dragged off by African tribesmen, John Lydon leading a Santeria sacrifice, a thunder storm, an arcade game shot into outer space, a shamanistic hip-hop festival, a Native American gang war, a toytown parade led by a shouting punk — and that's just the first four untitled tracks of Aa's Gaame. After that it gets really bizarre. One can just make out the group's precursors and influences: PiL, the Slits, the Pop Group, and in the case of bits of track seven, Bow Wow Wow's "C-30, C-60, C-90 Go!" (well, sort of). Hey, you've got to stretch a bit to make sense of this. Tribal and hip-hop rhythms, yips and incoherent vocals, edgy electronic experimentation, trumpeting elephants, a twist of reggae, Aa never stay still, pulsing through genres, pattering through styles: every time you think you've got a piece pinned down, it squirms off into something else. On track 11, you might even think you've heard an homage to Jade Warrior (look them up), except for that buzzing industrial insect and landing spaceship towards the end. Track 13 storms further into prog rock, then suddenly skitters off into avant-garde experimentation before tumbling into synth-pop techno and back again into utter weirdness. It's difficult to explain but mesmerizing to hear, as the band stretch and turn, pump up the rhythm then pause, flick out a touch of melody and switch on the weird effects. Still confused? Then watch the accompanying DVD. This contains videos for each of the tracks, as well as a plethora of live footage, the latter will definitely help make sense of it all, and the former is an optical feast for your eyes.