Cave Bat celebrates first anniversary with ‘Poodle Doodles’
They say if a poodle smiles at you in the morning
- Courtesy Cave Bat
Poodle Doodles is more than just the 12th release from Nathan Brown (Hopi Torvald, Tree Creature) and Kris Nelson, aka Cave Bat. The digital-only album also marks the project’s one-year anniversary: A full year of unbridled exploration and quietly manic music has gone by since the project first appeared. And although experimental music isn’t quite known for its punctuality (or for its reliability), these two have relied on a relatively consistent schedule of one album per month, with Brown and Nelson’s adaptation to various genres and approaches taking shape along the way. Poodle Doodles is one of the lighter offerings the duo has offered up, but that doesn’t ditch the heady experimentation by any means.
Throughout these seven tracks, Cave Bat focuses on the odd-ball pop curators that wrote the book on catchy curiosities and avant-garde playfulness. Think Robert Wyatt or Moondog’s blue-collar orchestras melded with the Residents’ sense of creepy engagement. “Origin Tail,” “The Splendors of the Earth...,” and “Yeah!” each perpetuate the duo’s versatility, wearing the hat of both kosmische synth virtuosos and bedroom composers. “Poodle Tale excerpt 1” and “Poodle Take excerpt 2” play more as sound collages, digitally cutting and pasting on- and off-topic phrases in a glorious traipse of non-sequiturs. The eponymous closing track is an extended meditation on the scraggly canine with tasteful textures and drifting ambiance. It is still a wonder as to whether or not the duo will perform live again, or what their ultimate direction might be. But it’s a captivating story to follow nonetheless.
★★★☆☆