Loch Ness Mouse + Superman Can Flys
Two Norwegian Winter EPs

It's 20 degrees centigrade below zero outside. Time to put on some heart-warming 7-inch records, sit down in your armchair by the fire and long for the spring:

The Loch Ness Mouse
The Ceylon Sailor EP
Perfect Pop Records/Two Zero Records
 

Let's start with the oldest of these two EPs, dating from the fall of last year. The LNM has moved on from the cool north-Indian hills of Darjeeling (check out the superb debut album at Moon 31) to another tea district further south. The opening track of each side, Bryan Hayes and Titanic Nick, have a bit harder edges and are not quite as whistle-friendly as we're used to from the Mouse. It's still guitar oriented fuzz-pop wonders, thankfully, and Bryan Hayes is a happy and funny homage the American ex-drummer of the band. (He quit to move to the small town where I grew up and start a successful coffee-shop, incidentally, and was taken aback when he heard about this song.) Titanic Nick includes more musical themes than your average LNM-song. I still wonder why not half of Oslo's population wander around shouting "Nick Nick Nick, Titanic Nick". They seem to do so during the Mouse's gigs, at least. Adrian Shine is closer to earlier songs by the band and could easily fit into the Flair For Darjeeling set with the happy harmony vocals and chorus. But who is this Adrian figure, another ex-member? The only song without the name of a person in its title is Harmony Highschool. Although it could no doubt have been named after the obvious choice of principal of the school, Brian Wilson. A little piano-driven melancholic tribute to the Beach Boys' genius around his creative peak in 1966. Wonderful!

The Superman Can Flys
The Tar Tar-Pop EP
Perfect Pop Records
 

Several members of the Jessica Fletchers are involved in the Superman Can Flys. This is a less tight combo, with looser structure and songs dominated by acoustic guitars, keyboards, the odd rhythm-box (?) and flute. The five tracks on the EP - on superthick vinyl - are highlights from a low-fi CD suitably called So Unfinished And Yet So Complete privately pressed in 50 copies last spring. My personal favourite is the dreamy Cloudbert, the imaginative friend of Albert Åberg, a Swedish children's books and tv-series boy hero, I guess. Also the delightful and simple title track and the chorus of Normalize And Stabilize make the EP worth checking out. If you prefer an informal 7 inch vinyl record, put together by a bunch of friends and pop-heads, look no further!

Go visit Perfect Pop Records.

Copyright © 2001 JP