The Chap are a right bunch of nutters. You cannot bracket them anywhere but in the "wild futuristic pop" section of your local record store. The single 'Fun & Interesting' is just addictive but doesn't hint at the feral dayglo pleasures contained on new album 'Mega Breakfast'. I think they're the true heirs to Sparks throne, eccentric pop mavericks, unfairly stuck in a kind of limboland where they're viewed as a merely a "weird indie band". No, they straddle decades these folks. I can hear 70's funk, New Wave pranksters Devo in there, lots of mid-period Wire from the 80's with THAT kind of maverick forward thinking tendancy to produce blindingly fresh & enjoyable hook filled tunes with tons of fascinating quirky touches. The conversational vocals are sometimes like colliding soundbites, reminding me of Talking Heads at their finest (i'd like to say spastic funk, is that OK?). They really are mad as a basket of gibbering frogs but they have this fluid coherency that makes every new song a proper treat of schizo disco rock and electroid punk soul. If you want something truly enjoyable & interesting then you really must buy this album. Real multifaceted space age pop that makes Hot Chip sound like Cold Fish. CD only on Lo, home of innovation.
