Some bands are just difficult to categorise, and whilst that never bothers me as a listener (I either connect, or don’t or somewhere in between) it does mean when you review their music you have to work a little harder, without easy comparisons to get the feeling across and try to convey in words a little of what the band does sonically.
Hepcat Dilemma sent me an album, ‘Art Imitates Life,’is a real slab of vinyl that you feel has to be heard in that way. This isn’t music for a digital age, its music that has so much more substance than that we’re fed approaching the 20’s and it comes after a lengthy absence – the bands last release being 17 years ago in 2002.
Imagine the new world post punk channeled through a progressive ethic, imagine music that is unconstrained and yet immediate with tight arrangements and a real ‘live’ feel. Add to that some wonderful musicianship and inspired lyrics all delivered with real feeling and this is what you get in nine tracks that lie within these vinyl grooves.
Hailing from Canonsburg PA this just might be one of my favourites of the year yet its so out of character to what I normally listen to it comes as a breath of fresh air. Sometimes you just need to open your ears to new possibilities and this is an album that does just that. Yes it does have some great riffs and solid songs, but what I love is that it takes every opportunity to twist out of your grasp with quirky asides and odd time-signatures and whilst with classic Prog that can be distracting here it seems such an integral part of the sound it just clicks.
Listen to any track here and you’ll get an idea of the scope and scale of things. This isn’t a record for the digital age, but it’s also not necessarily one of those vinyl ‘end-to-enders’ either where the whole is more important than the parts as each track or sometimes even section of tracks stands up in their own right.
Put the needle on ‘Cowboy Song’ (no it’s not Bob Seger) and let it all in- what you get is quite sharp and to the point but also quite unpredictable with lyrics that seem to be designed to both make a particular point or open a debate. Of all the tracks here it’s as you might imagine ones like the wackily titled ‘The Chauffeur Will Have the Last Word’ that really push you one way or the other; whilst its numbers like ‘The Hepcat Motto’ that you feel ride the line between tongue-in-cheek quirkiness and real self-belief.
‘Night of the Spiders’ which closes side one sits uncomfortably as you might hope for against the flip-side’s opener ‘Persian Monkey Treatment’ whilst ‘Sky Cycle’ crashes like Zappa and yet has the lighter touch of bands like The Tubes or TPOH, not that either could ever be this blunt-edged of course.
Two of the best close ‘Blindsided in Aisle 12’ is wonderfully fleet and sticky and ‘What Will Her Kiss Mean Tomorrow?’ well, I’ll let you enjoy that one. This is certainly one to blow away the cobwebs.
How do you sum Hepcat Dilemma up? Well think noise-rock. Think Butthole Surfers challenging Zappa to a lazy duel whilst Jello Biafra stands as referee. We’re getting there, I think, but still way short…
I’ll leave you with the tongue-in-cheek mantra to ‘The Hepcat Motto’ which has a single line of lyrics that remind you “If you’re not careful in five years you will only listen to music like this.” Now there’s a thought…