Two long full length releases from the Big Nest in the same year!?! This seems to be a sort of spiritual sequel to the deeply strange DonorDennis record, it has at least some material in common, but it doesn’t seem to have any kind of narrative, compared to the other one, and is a lot looser and longer, with lots of extended instrumentals and longer spoken word pieces than the shorter jingles I Mentioned on my previous review.

From what I can tell, the release is split into about four sections, with each Section being loosely thematically or stylistically linked, like a very varied double LP. 

The first ‘side‘ is a four song suite of an instrumental, a doo wop song, an Capella Ween cover and a long comedic vignette about a Jazz Barber which is the most similar to the previous record, but less cluttered and claustrophobic sounding, and with significantly simpler recordings that sound more competent and less erratic to boot. 

Section two has a short sequence of tributes to Ataturk, Chas (from Chas and Dave), and ‘Burt’. One of them is a cover of Snooker Loopy. 

Section 3 seems to consist of a soundtrack to something called Bunny Cha Cha. I have no idea what this might be, but it’s catchy and piano driven for the most part, and Doesn’t last long anyway.

Then we have Section 4, which is the longest, the most experimental and baffling and is made up of several tracks that break the 10 minute mark. 

I’ll go through track by track again, there’s something be said for each of the 23 tracks here, although one is lyrics only, so it’s only 22 and presumably unfinished again. There’s accompanying artwork for each of the tracks again which are worth a look, if you like odd little pictures.

Morning Wood at the Lazy P — sparse guitar instrumental with some surprising little licks and a strange interruption. Sounds like a live recording with a drum machine. This is probably the least weird thing on the record, because this happens next

Fakebook McFail — multitracked and varispeeded vocal doo wop about someone who is concerned about skydiving safety in Bali. There’s some queasy chipmunk vocals and the lyric sheet doesn’t seem to quiet match the recording. This track seems to be thematically linked to a much longer, later track. We’ll come to that.

Elevator to the Jazz Barber — this is the beginning of the weird turning pro part. This is both a song and a League or Gentlemen sketch about conjoined twins who play elevator music in an actual elevator. Close to the end it starts to rain and the percussive scissors and scar singing blend together into a really dreamy soup that I’ve bathed in a lot of times. If this is an indication of a Future direction then I could stand to hear more like this. It ends with a demented hoe down. 

Up on the Hill by Ween — a cover. It sounds infernal and it’s short. 

Poop loop for Burt — Burt Reynolds???? Improvised? This is fun and doesn’t quite outstay its welcome. Sounds live with just looped guitar, vocal and percussion. Meandering it is, but the little song keeps it focussed. Sort of. 

Guitar/Bass duo for Ataturk — vaguely eastern sounding instrumental vignette. 

Snooker Loopy For the Dead Chas — cover of Chas and Dave. Sung in a very strange Fruity sort of Hymn style. 

BCC ident — Unicorn Poo!!!!

Theme from Bunny Cha Cha — words fail me. There’s an inhuman shriek in this which beggars belief.

No Sax Please — drum and sax skronk

Bunny Cha Cha Botswana variations — piano miniature. Zappoid. 

Bunny Cha Cha alternate — the lyrics are just Bunny Cha Cha. I’m afraid. There’s a kind of mania to this which isn’t entirely wholesome. Really lo-fi too. 

You Should All Care About Sky Diving Safety in Bali — the first of several extended instrumentals — this one appears to be a live improvisation for guitar, keys, tape recording, percussion and drugs. I’m not sure what’s going on here, but I assume it has a story or thrust to it. Maybe a plane crash or something. In any case, there’s a phone message that plays throughout at different speeds and volumes and word orders. This one is probably the weirdest bit so far, and there’s some really interesting grooves that emerge and dribble away. There seems to be children present. That seems to be a theme. This does not end well and possibly with a depiction of an atrocity. 

That Boots was made for Something — guitar and drums instrumental, presumably live. Really innocuous after the seventeen minutes of evil that happened just before. This sounds more like a demo, and I swear the chord sequence pops up again later on. There’s mistakes left in again. But it’s pretty competent and doesn’t sound like what came before. 

The Nesting Loop Maggot Bigamist — similar to pooploop, but more realised. This is a trancing Kraut groove with lots of layers of guitars and phased drums. Sounds like a band, but I think it’s just one dude. This is intense on headphones and shows some progress with recording technique and the loop pedal. Maybe sounds like early Grateful Dead at their sloppiest and most stoned. Two drummers and a wall of guitar loops. 

Leg End of the Toe Jam — Funkadelic Tribute?!?? I swear this is the same as the Boots tune from earlier but with a spoken word part, weird percussion and synths and trippy shit aplenty. This guy loves maggot brain and all those early dubby Funkadelic Records. This one sounds like that, but sloppier and more paranoid. 

Fat Veined Throbber (Ooh you fucker) — Best not mentioned, really. Lots of creepy synths and whispers about crisps and money. Really inscrutable. 

Snuff Box — cover of the theme tune of the Tv show. Surprisingly heart felt and straight, on guitars. 

Finally there’s a three part, twenty odd minute odyssey through turmoil. Part one is called Non compliant — it’s a sax thing. It sounds vaguely like Strangers in Paradise at times and the synth noises are droning and thick like Tangerine Dream and the vaguely eastern sound from earlier is twisted and goosed into strange shapes. The drums are a lot more restrained than normal and this sounds more like a jazz or new age record than anything so far. It’s surprisingly focussed and competently recorded, apparently again by one bloke. 

The Next Part is called Partially Compliant (reflective log). The instrumentation is slightly different, and adds guitars, and percussion And mixes the sax down low and dubs in and out. There’s an auto wah on one of the guitars Again, quite restrained and competent, although there appears to be a deranged baby as loud as the sax at times. 

Part 3 is called Sickness (my favourite colour is violence) and is troubling and leaves the sax behind and swaps it for mouth organ, but the vaguely eastern feel of the previous two parts is sustained. A vocal is also present and it sounds like someone in the depths of despair, singing about Something traumatic that happened. The backing vocals throughout sound like groans and the list of colours ending in violence is very unsettling. We are in a Skip Spence, Roky, Syd territory here.. A little blues lick appears out of nowhere and the backing vocals sound like crickets and goblins. Then a new section appears that is the most visceral sound of mental illness I’ve heard for quite some time. I have no frame of reference for this. Those late Nick Drake recordings? In any case, the unravelling is graphic and desperate, but still listenable. Surprisingly so, there’s some nice melodies here.‘ It’s like a disease when arrests come in threes, i’d like to leave it at two’ is one of the discernible lyrics. I’m not sure what it means. 

Then it all ends with finger clicking and mouth organ and you wonder what happened. It can’t have been good, but I think the record whatever the Sickness was produced is good. I’m not sure what to expect next. Apparently he’s looking for a live band to play with at parties, so there’s that. 

Worth your time. 

. https://​vsevelodandthebignest​.bandcamp​.com/​a​l​b​u​m​/​v​s​e​v​e​l​o​d​d​i​t​t​y​-​t​h​e​-​r​eturn