Random Portraits of the Home Movie

Album Review

Without reading the press materials, you might never guess that the solo debut from Sushiboro guitarist Dave Einmo (recording under the name Head Like a Kite) was inspired by the Super 8 home movies shot by his family in the late '70s, or even that sampled sounds from those movies served as the basis for many of these songs and instrumental compositions. What's much more obvious is his love of early-20th-century musique concrète and of early-'80s synth pop. "Words of a Friend" sounds weirdly like Jim Morrison being accompanied by Be Bop Deluxe-era Bill Nelson, while on "Your Butt Crack Smile" analog synthesizers and a Kraftwerk vocoder meet trashy glam guitar, with an outro lifted straight from the New Order book. "Interested in Worms?" staggers around on a weird 5/4 rhythmic structure, and "Noisy at the Circus" features a female vocalist who sounds uncannily like the Sundays' Harriet Wheeler. The album ends on a deeply sad note, with the gorgeously depressing "Scenes from the World Trade Center 1979." This is one of those rare albums that is both immediately accessible and strangely thought-provoking at the same time.