Band: Cheer-Accident

CD Title: “Fear Draws Misfortune”

Band Website: www.cheer-accident.com

Label: Cuneiform Records

Label Website: www.cuneiformrecords.com

Release Date: 2009

 

This is the 16^th release in the 25 years career of the Chicago based art collective known as Cheer-Accident. And what a release it is. Cheer-Accident is primarily the trio of Jeff Libersher (guitar, bass, trumpet, vocals), Thymme Jones (drums, vocals, pseudo-marimba, synthesizer) and Alex Perkolup (bass). But having said that these three are assisted by as many as 15 guests performing on instruments as varied as clarinet to cello to tuba, bassoon and lots more.

 

Fear Draws Misfortune features only nine tracks, but boy, are they ever packed with music. And I mean all kinds of music. Track one “Sun Dies” [5:49] starts out with a kind of XTC riff on the guitar until some atonal trumpets are brought into the mix followed by vocals and then after about two-minutes the song morphs into a throbbing, pulsating, rumbling jumble of wonderful driving riffs. It’s totally captivating and in fact many of the tracks, the longer ones in particular are created in similar fashion. There are a number of tracks which are quite short that really tend to rock but it’s the longer pieces where Cheer-Accident shine giving their compositions a wealth of variety. The music itself is a mix of rock, played with a Frank Zappa off-kilter sensibility spiced up with a variety of proggy embellishments. Most of the tracks like “Blue Cheadle” [5:47] chug along nicely and I found myself not humming the melody so much as I was humming the catchy riffs. None of these pieces is simple, sprinkled throughout are dissonant blasts from some reed or woodwind instrument, with strange vocal chanting or almost pop-operatics. But when it all comes together the angular parts really serve to heighten the more straight-forward parts. After about the forth or fifth listen I was actually surprised at how much I’d grown to not only know the music but really enjoy the musicianship.

 

Fans of RIO or Avant-Prog will find much to enjoy here, but I have to say prog fans in general looking to stretch their listening pallet will also enjoy the work of Cheer-Accident. Fear Draws Misfortune is well worth the time you invest in it.