Inca Ore with Lemon Bear's Orchestra - The Birds in the Bushes

5RC
Released: 08.22.06

If Eva Saelens (aka Inca Ore) shows up at your house, expect her to pull all of the pots and pans out of the cabinet, and beat on them while she meows, stutters in nonsense languages, and chatters like a territorial squirrel. Expect her to demand your attention as she berates you one minute and strokes your head the next. You'll want to throw her out, but you won't, because even though Inca Ore comes across as a total head case when you first meet her, a few minutes later you'll realize that she's a complicatedly interesting head case.

On Inca Ore's second album, The Birds in the Bushes, she recruits the help of Lemon Bear to create eleven songs that invoke a wide range of emotions. This is Inca Ore and Lemon Bear's true talent. They'll set up the sounds of an entire garden of flowers facing the sun while ants carry leaves and bees gather pollen. Somewhere in the garden there is a deadly fight. We hear the loser's screams and the winner's triumph. The result is unfocused but complete. It's like listening in on every apartment on a city block. Love, hate, anger, happiness, sadness are all around us all the time; this album tries to show all of them taking place at the same time.

The Birds in the Bushes isn't an album made for most people. More interesting than enjoyable, you have to give it your full attention and several listens before you appreciate it. Even after you've discovered what makes it great, you'll probably only pull it out to make your friends listen to a track or two.

- Matt Thompson