Perfect Angels is an apt name for this band of psychedelic pop traffickers. This showed up in my inbox with no information. Basically everything on the release page is in French. I have no idea what’s going on (okay, other than ex-OSR Tapes mogul, Zach Phillips, is behind the label and is half of the band. Okay I guess that’s actually a fair amount), but that’s all part of the charm. Exit from the Ultra-World reminds me a lot of Montreal underground hypnotists, The Haiduks, but with an headier, alien edge. These 18 (!!) vignettes bop and groove, flowers always turning to face the sun so they get the best rays.
Haze fills the room whenever singer Olia Eichenbaum starts hypnotizing listeners with her voice. “I’m Outbid” gets into weird futuristic zones by going into the underbelly of LA-circa-Blade Runner, Eichenbaum’s whispers lulling you into complacency so someone can sneak up from behind and snag your wallet. Zigzagging sonic passages spin you around into a frenzy on the short but potent “Angels Suffering.” Leave me to space out in this space forever and I’ll be content.
Opener “The Moat” is so delightfully saccharine and crystalline that when Shoko Igarashi cranks up her saxophone shreds, it’s jarring and perfect. There’s all sorts of dichotomies like this sprinkled throughout Exit from the Ultra-World that keeps me coming back from more. Scratchy guitars under the surface try to derail the bumping bass rhythms while Eichenbaum gently lilts lyrics like “All love is easy while no love is hard,” on standout “All Love.” Like all of Exit from the Ultra-World, It’s catchy and strange and everything I want in pop music. Perfect Angels are indeed just that.
