Opossom - Electric Hawaii (7" vinyl box set, Vinyl LP, CD)

Opossom is the new project of former Mint Chick Kody Neilson, whose brother and former bandmate Ruban has gone on to form the excellent Unknown Mortal Orchestra. I am of course interested to see if that crazy talent runs in the family or if it was Ruban propping up their previous band, and it’s delightful to be able to report that this slice of technicolour psychedelic pop totally lives up to my hopes, mixing ‘60s style psychedelic pop influences like the Kinks and the Byrds with more modern experimental pop types like Connan Mockasin, Of Montreal, Menomena, later Flaming Lips and the like.

The songs are led by bass, drums, synth and vocals, which makes for a refreshing change to the usual guitar-led psychedelic fare which graces our doors every day of every week. Some of the synthwork is pretty weird too, with the shimmering synth washes and toytown percussion of Getaway Tonight, which is a really unusual bit of uplifting driftpop that I’m sure I could happily listen to on repeat a good four or five times before I started getting annoyed. Elsewhere things get a bit weirder, especially on overdriven closer ‘Inhaler Song’. There’s a bit too much vocoder on the vocals in places but that’s a minor gripe when there’s this many quality quirky pop songs on offer. Excellent work!