Band: Squirm*Orchestra
Album: Somersaults Inside Ourselves
Price: $0.99
You can’t judge a book by its cover, but you can be curious enough to buy a CD for about a buck because of the packaging. Vinyl lovers like to turn their nose down on CDs for so many things, least of all the packaging. “With vinyl, you get this massive, beautiful canvas,” they say, or something along those lines. But anyone who really wants to get creative with packaging artwork can work with the tools and confines they’re given. Vinyl, cassette, CD, 8-track, MiniDisc, MP3, whatever.
I barely know what Somersaults Inside Ourselves sounds like: I listened to it once, and it barely registered. I’m listening to it for a second time as I type, and I know why I haven’t returned. Squirm*Orchestra has got some gumption and ideas, but their sound seems to spill out of their cauldron of songs in ways no one wants. Electrionic blips float one way, shades of noise pop in another way and disappear. There’s some excellent drumming in there, but it all seems to crash together and not make much sense.
One could say the same for the album artwork. It’s surely ambitious, but it seems almost haphazardly scrapped together. Which certainly stands out, and after rows and rows of jewel cases, a ludicrously shaped envelope that’s practically threaded together can do wonders to one’s curiosity.
Sometimes the kind of off-the-wall displays of creativity like Squirm*Orchestra’s Somersaults Inside Ourselves can elicit a range of reactions. Sure, maybe I didn’t like the music too much, but the experience of the whole package evoked a certain… well, I still can’t make up my mind on that. Just like Squirm*Orchestra, I also appear to be too overwhelmed to decide which way to go with Somersaults Inside Ourselves.
