The third album from the Philadelphia four-piece, “Brother Sister” is the first to be granted an official release in the UK. They can be roughly categorised as ‘experimental, indie-rock’ with a strong Christian influence although in truth it is difficult to really pigeonhole them. This is a band who’s PR proudly boasts they are “bringing forth a new era in music” which is quite a disturbing thought. For the most part I found this to be aimless, directionless and ultimately pointless.

It is all very well being uncompromising and unorthodox, the likes of Frank Zappa and Captain Beefheart enjoyed long careers by being so. But to do this successfully you have to at least demonstrate you can write a half-decent song in the first place and mewithoutYou have fallen someway short. The meandering, part-spoken vocals of Aaron Weiss suggests that he is entirely disinterested in the whole process, and even when he does up the tempo, such as on the forceful ‘Wolf Am I! (and Shadow)’, his voice simply seems to give way under the strain. ‘The Dryness And The Rain’ showcases some truly hideous tribal drumming and monastic chanting on what you could laughingly describe as the “chorus” although, in truth, there is little in the way of song structure to be found here.

Some of the mellower moments (‘O Porcupine’ and the ‘Spider’ trilogy), add to the ‘experimental’ feel of the album through the use of melodica and harp, but again they are overshadowed by the lyrical ramblings that prove unrelenting. His insistence on trying to squeeze as many ideas as possible into 40 odd minutes results in the listener being left with an album that simply irritates and annoys in equal measures.

With some recurring themes via the song titles and the narrative there is presumably some sort of spiritual, god-fearing, concept to the whole piece; however, if Weiss is trying to convey a message then I am afraid it is totally lost on me. At the end of the day, “Brother Sister” is an album that tries to be far too clever for its own good; and as a great man once said “it’s a fine line between clever and stupid”.