I Fly

To call Birdbrain "quirky" would be to establish new boundaries of meaning for the word. Consisting of one female singer, an alto saxophonist, a tenor saxophonist, and a trombonist, the band is sort of a weird cross between a classical wind ensemble, a cabaret outfit, and the pickup bands that David Thomas used to convene for his solo albums. (Conspiracy mongers will note that several tracks were recorded at the Brooklyn studio of Pere Ubu alumnus Tony Maimone.) To call I Fly an album would also be to play somewhat fast and loose with the terminology; although it's ten tracks long, the average track length is about two minutes, so it's really about the length of an EP. (To the label's credit, track times are prominently noted on the back cover.) Don't look for memorable melodies here; the hook is the incredibly inventive and constantly interesting horn arrangements, which sometimes sound like 12th-century hocketing and sometimes like bird calls; Yvette Perez's vocals are also attractive, but not usually as interesting as the horns. The lyrics are mostly pretty hard to catch, since they tend to be mixed a bit low next to the horns, but the snippets that come through are, you know, quirky. Recommended.