Mice Parade | Lapapo
(Bubble Core Records)
Dreamy and poppy, experimental but cohesive and accessible, Mice Parade’s first album in over a decade soars above the clouds with gorgeous, improvised arrangements. Beautiful and varied voices of songstresses divert the music earthbound, leaving sonic layers suspended in mist. These diverse female lead vocals are a perfect complement for the Eastern melodies and instruments interplaying with the too-cool-for-school indie guitars and electronica. As the beats catapult the music into territory of the bombastic, they ever-teeter on the edge of control, but somehow tiptoe across the tightrope. Instrumentals are interspersed throughout, sometimes searing, sometimes soft-spoken, always propelling the album forward. This is heady and well-heeled, road-tested, and cultured shoegaze with more than a tinge of exotica.
An anagram of Adam Pierce, he is Mice Parade. A stellar drummer (of Swirlies fame), the Germantown-based Pierce plays a multitude of other instruments, some obscure, on the 13-song LP. There are plenty of industrious, creative, and talented mouseketeers in the lyrical, vocal, and production mix, but it is Pierce who writes and performs most of the music. That said, there is an intentional and collaborative appreciation and approach. The album includes all of the singers who have toured with the band over the years as well as Rob Laakso (Kurt Vile, Swirlies), Dan Lippel (ICE), and Gunnar Tynes (Mum). Lapapo was recorded and mixed by Pierce and Jeremy Backofen (Felice Brothers) at Kirton Farm studio in Clermont, except for one tune recorded by Gunnar Tynes at Studio Fun Machine in Reykjavik, Iceland.
