Punk-punk-punk; every time I review a punk record on this site I mention how there just isn’t enough coming into Cerbs, and never has been. What gives? Super Secret has been filling the void, or helping to, for a few years now, so when this Ichi Ni San Shi LP came in I figured I was in for another serving of punkin’ pie. What I/we (we’re all in this together, right?) got instead was a band more in line with Silent League, Of Montreal, or maybe even Half-Handed Cloud and recent Sufjan, rife with electronic elements and vocals that quiz the ear on quirk. If you were to describe their sound to me, I’d likely bristle and refuse to even give it a chance, and while at times during Slow Truth my instinct to move on kicked in, I’m glad I stuck around because there are beguiling experiments afoot. “Watch Them Grow” is a prime example, starting as an irritating, awkward interaction between elements that seem miles apart, then morphing into a positively enlightening experience with the help of a few well-placed synthpeggios and a momentum that, once it picks up, just won’t quit (kind of like this sentence, which through parenthesis is still alive!). That guy from Vampire Weekend keeps pumping money into his synths, or at least I hope he is, and he still can’t get his rig to imitate trumpets as effectively as these guys do. Just for the record.
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