Album Review

Super Extra Bonus Party – Night Horses

• 16th Jun 2009

Super Extra Bonus Party’s eponymous debut album was emblematic of the imagination that existed (and still exists) in the Irish music scene, but more importantly it was full of well realised inventiveness, if occasionally lacking a general album coherency.

However, today, in a musical environment where Crystal Castles, MGMT, Empire of the Sun and Passion Pit are setting new bars for entertaining glitch electro based music Super Extra Bonus Party have their work cut out in maintaining a place in rapidly crowding musical niche.

Trying to categorise Super Extra Bonus Party’s music is definitely not in the spirit of the band and often proves a mugs game, but if one had to try then the genres which they would most comfortably slot into would be electro orientated hip hop and kinetic instrumentals. And while I’m at risk of doing disservice to the manic atmosphere generated by the bands own brand of anything goes electro, its easy to say that ‘Night Horses’ sets out its stall by refining all the musical elements that made their original effort so striking.

‘Sonora’ provides a moment of electro introspection similar to Nina Hynes ‘On the Skyline’, while ‘Radar’ and ‘Thin Air’ demonstrate just how at home Super Extra Bonus Party are when working hip hop driven beats and breaks into their sound, (the former recalling the same sense of invention that permeated Gorillaz’ ‘Demon Days’). In addition, this effort clocks in with only one less instrumental than its predecessor does.

For all the parallels that can be drawn with their debut effort, simply adding more of the same would not be enough to label this album a success. And truth be told Super Extra Bonus Party go one beyond the pale on this, as each of the standout tracks of the album are important milestones in the bands progression. The Brazilian MC Rodrigo Teles was a marmite presence on the debut album and perhaps as a result he makes but one appearance here. But what a showing it is: ‘Do Inico Ao Fim’ distills all the best (and all too often, scattered) elements of Super Extra Bonus Party’s musical range into one extremely tight song. The rambling bass line syncopating with the soaring synth keyboards towards the songs conclusion is definitely one of the albums inspired moments, as all the elements of the song build to a chaotic, hypnotic, crescendo.
It’s just this sort of frenetic atmosphere within which the band excels; if jazz can be surmised as a musical conversation between performers then Super Extra Bonus Party’s best work is akin to all the different instruments enjoying a living room rave with one another.‘Who are You and What Do You Want’ (featuring another shining light of Irish electronic music experimentation R.S.A.G) is the best example of this. I could list at least five different and disparate musical acts that this song evokes but I won’t, as I’m sure each listener will hear different echoes within this song and furthermore because the ultimate impression this song leaves is of an eclectic yet energetic sound, and one which is very much Super Extra Bonus Party’s stock and trade.

However the album tracks which deviate from this loose formulae stick out like sore thumbs; each of them are fine songs in their own right but they appear awkward and out of place in the midst of the fruitfully experimental songs that surround them. Maykay from Fight Like Apes guests on the track ‘Eamonn’, and while this song would sit very comfortably in the Fight like Apes canon its inclusion on ‘Night Horses’ is extremely jarring. It doesn’t help that it is followed by the Heathers collaboration ‘Comets’, which is a nice, fleeting piece of electro pop but it too doesn’t sit well with the rest of the album.

‘2’ is a wonderful, moving acoustic instrumental, but were it not part of the collection of songs that constitute the contemplative down tempo conclusion to the album it would doubtless be the biggest ‘we’re not in Kansas anymore’ offender.

Artists should never be knocked for trying something different, but the aforementioned three songs feel like gatecrashers on an otherwise enjoyable album. Furthermore the band actually has a decent measure of success playing around with reggae rhythms on ‘Tea time with Lord Haw Haw’, which further accentuates the failure of their forays into other genres.

Super Extra Bonus Party have provided an enjoyable, if slightly flawed album. Along the way they have succeeded in refining the sound which made them seem so explosive when they first burst onto the Irish music scene. However the failure of stretching themselves too thin across such varied genres illustrates that this party can’t continue to sprawl out uncontrollably and indefinitely, lest the momentum and core enjoyment be lost, and perhaps a tighter musical focus would have yielded a better album.

Given how explosive their debut onto the Irish music scene was, avoiding the dreaded ‘second album syndrome’ was going to prove doubly difficult. They have succeeded in this regard, and more importantly, they have provided some excellent, innovative and extremely enjoyable songs while doing so.