Kittycat Lollipop- Kittycat Lollipop

Artist: Kittycat Lollipop
CD Title: Demo
Label: Self-Released
Reviewer: Matthew Johnson
Date: 7-2-05

Were it not for the vocals, the retro analog music of Kittycat Lollipop would be as sickeningly cute as the name of the band itself. With the vocals, however, it’s extraordinarily creepy stuff. Less actual songs than insane, synthpop-flavored poetry, these pieces are something like early Current 93 by way of Nintendo, with angry vocals that never quite erupt into shrieks delivered without irony over ‘80s-era keyboards, bubbling blips, and bleeping melodies that wouldn’t sound out of place in a Super Mario Brothers game. “What Then?” artificially speeds the vocals into an eerie falsetto that sounds especially out of place over the cheesy Casio slap bass, but “Feather Down” is by far the most menacing, with its repeated phrase of “Little bird, where is your tongue? Little bird, what have you sung?” just sounding angrier and creepier with each repetition. This isn’t the cheesy slasher film scariness that makes people scream in crowded theaters and gets sampled by generic EBM acts, but the legitimately unsettling stuff that keeps you awake at night. This means not everyone is going to appreciate it. If you have an appetite for the authentically weird, however, you owe it to yourself to check out Kittycat Lollipop.

Get song samples and the latest news at www.myspace.com/kittycatlollipop.