According to Jérémy Rumerio’s bandcamp page, This frilly ape plays ‘mainly sad, sometimes, absurd, ironic, self-derisory, aggressive, nostalgic, often pessimistic, tormented, anxiety-inducing music’. With a description like that I wasn’t totally sure what to expect, but the more I’ve listened to Lovely mutant cauliflower the more I think that bio is right on the money. The opening track has the sleaziness of classic Tom Waits, but with far more sonic weirdness. The guitars stagger like a drunken sloth, often sounding detuned and mutated, in a wonderfully warped sort of way. It’s mighty difficult to make out what exactly the vocals are saying, or how they’re doing it, but it certainly adds to the absurdity of it all. A right eton mess.
As the album progresses, things start to make slightly more sense. There’s a small monologue during “Spoilt for Choice” that makes for a really poignant moment, and it’s one of the highlights of the whole record. Stylistically, it’s difficult to place This frilly ape, though avant-garde is certainly a term I’d use to describe much of the tracklist. Part post-punk, with occasional measures of new wave and experimental metal. It’s quite the fusion of sounds, and huge credit goes to Rumerio for creating something so distinctive. It’s rather captivating, truth be told. And very fucking weird indeed.
