Inspirations are hardly concealed behind a veil of white noise here: Thought Ballune sounds like Ariel Pink rocking and a-rolling around in the belly of a certain Yellow Submarine upon the temperamental seas of Beck's back catalogue, whilst Jello And Juggernauts taps into rhythm and blues pools, sugar, spice, guitar lines certainly best described as "nice" etc., all underpinned by a wistful A-sharp chord progression, yet Nielson excavates a substantial sense of innovation with nothing but a wiry Fender for a shovel. Highlights from the self-titled debut LP come thick and fast, the spaced-out gambol of opener Ffunny Ffriends immediately introducing the tumbledown, hauntingly incessant guitars that string together much of the work, before the imperturbable falsetto slink of How Can U Love Me?, reminiscent of many a midterm Prince record, hoists up serotonin levels with sugary, phase-saturated sounds and a bass line brilliantly clunky enough to wreck the heck out of Portland, where Nielson now resides. The cascading, reverberating echoes that institute the raucous Raw Power-like rabidity of Nerve Damage! are all but incongruous with the disconcerting grunting and growling that intermittently pervades the track, and Strangers Are Strange is disappointingly indiscernible from compatriot Connan Mockasin's brand of crooked, zany, almost caricatured freeform psych/funk/pop hybridisation. Fortunately there's then Little Blu House, which sounds like tangible beams of lustrous light oozing through stained-glass window, and probably just about represents the record's most resplendent moment. A particularly formidable effort from an 'Orchestra of one...
