Album Review: Joe Gideon & The Shark Freakish

Three years after the release of debut album Harum Scarum, siblings Joe Gideon & The Shark (aka Viva Gideon, an ex-Olympic ribbon gymnast) burst forth with Freakish, which fittingly heightens the weird and in the process creates a far superior record.

It certainly isn't a straightforward listen – renowned for their visual flair and interaction, the duo often struggle to find that common middle ground in the recording studio. Thus a silly comedic blues rock song like Snake Candy struggles to maintain interest for its three-minute running time, or Joe's insistence to do spoken word. That said, when they get it right, it's mesmerising. The magnetic opener I'm Ruined swings from monotone (strangely reminiscent of Simon Pegg) to primal yelps, all over a macabre funereal dirge. Poor Born stands as Viva's first vocal lead, and its vocoder-heavy eclecticism combined with her frenetic drumming, distorted guitar wails and a Goldfrapp-worthy playful synth line is a strong song, if sticking out here like a sore thumb. The warped swagger of The Insignificant Bullet (based on the shooting of Werner Herzog) is hypnotic, while Nine Bells Of Hell is six minutes of slowly building guitar arpeggios and rollick drums, an organ whipping up a gospel fervour as Joe tries to find a cure (“I thought I'd let off some steam by playing ping-pong/But the only thing off the boil was my form/I lost 21-10 to my brother-in-law”). The title track rivals this for comedic atmosphere, with a psych detour in the final third.

Freakish suffers from some unevenness, yet that barely detracts from what is a fun, inventive listen, and in Joe Gideon we have a truly idiosyncratic wordsmith.