Skeletons & the Kings of All Cities "Hay W'happns?"

Speaking of their very good new album, Skeletons leader Matt Mehlan says: "LUCAS is named after a small town in Kansas, where the Garden of Eden is. I started writing words for the record when we were driving through those huge states, thinking about these little places off the interstate. Sometimes just a house or two next to each other." The press release tries to qualify this by making some claims about expansiveness and sonic detail, but I think Mehlan was pulling a leg with that statement, or else he just has an incredibly strange impression of Kansas. I've driven through the state, and it's exactly the same for eight hours; the equivalent of an entire work day spent sitting and waiting for a billboard. LUCAS, on the other hand, is packed with all manner of stimuli, shifting shape every few seconds. Take "Hay W'happns" (mp3) for example; the jungle-skronk free-jazz open simmers down and exposes into a middle-Eastern funk groove, which they'll push aside then reconsider repeatedly, giving the song its central structure (and highlighting the delightful transitions with hand claps!). When Mehlman's voice slips in, he seems to purposefully sing in a register much higher than his, bending gender and musical notes in equal measure. All this while seemingly adopting the persona of a curious, hovering, godlike experimenter, playing with possible scenarios in a world that belongs to him. Okay, a little like the Garden of Eden. But Kansas?

Buy Lucas from Ghostly International here.