Review of Schizo Fun Addict's CD "Atom Spark Hotel"

As sensible as it is plain mental, as simplistic as it is complex, as delightfully naïve as it is pure genius. This is the best album of 2005 thus far.

My ears fall immediately in love, and the rest of me follows suit soon after. New York Uber Cool Alt-Indie funksters Schizo Fun Addict have produced an album that brims with self-confidence and passion. How the hell has this managed to avoid the big guns in the music scene?

So it is lowly old local music reviewer me's job to make you prick your ears up. Honestly, if you never ever listen to anything else I every say, listen now. GO BUY THIS ALBUM!

After 2 years in recluse in the rock and roll rehab the Atom Spark Hotel, and hailing a lead singer who hasn't muttered a spoken word since she was 4, Shizo Fun addict have a pretty unique and very rock and roll story that precedes them. Thank the Lord though they also have the music to back the tale up.

"Atom Spark Hotel" drifts in on a cloud, the delicious vocal delights of Jane Gabriel and Jet Wintzer slicing a path through the utterly random beats and riffs that carry much of this album's glory. A brief insight into influence occurs on track 2, as Schizo Fun Addict take a shot at covering 90's much-underrated Cork-ites "The Frank and Walters" delightful "Fashion crisis hits New York". And they nail it.

Back to own material proceedings though, and treats galore. Lots of whoops and whistles, inventive samples and jaw dropping direction changes. Experimental in music is a thin line, Shizo fun walk this with ease though. If "Fashion crisis hits New York" got you comfortable then "Venus probe" rugby tackles you. Quirky lo-fi vocals accompanied by a manic and extreme guitar overhaul, colossal offbeat drum fills permeating the ever-thinning air.

And thus on with the show. With the Stones roses-esque instrumental ramble of "Jellstar" Schizo Fun Addict combine waves of crazed guitar streaking naked through a sea of hip hop beats and samples. "Solon" is pure experimental indie-electronica, sampled drumbeats and oversized vocal effects. Only 4 songs in we even see a revised "Atom Spark Hotel". Well, by revised I mean dirtied up a hell of a lot and pumped full of bass and filth.

Honestly, I must stop. I could wax lyrical forever about this recording, for it is wonderfully unique and truly amazing. Where have the days gone when this would have been raved about on the front cover of every good muso journal? The days when the Roses kinged the world and different direction was considered a thing of beauty. Who the hell decided any good band had to begin with "the" and harp on about saving the wales and the need to wear 60 different rubber wristbands? This album is a stunning achievement, so where are you NME? Stop drooling over the millionth pubesquent wanabee punk Londonites and open your friggin ears again. Damn you, Damn you for all it's worth.