Part Chimp - Cup
(Monitor Records) Keith Boyd 3.22.07

Remember when you were a kid and you'd go to the Zoo on a field trip or with your family? It was all supposed to be very educational and enlightening in regards to animals. You were meant to come away with a permanent "Wow!" in your brain and want to turn into some sort of superhero veterinarian saving the poor beasts of the world right? Then there was the reality. Long lines everywhere, people pushing and shoving to take pictures of the lions, crappy lunches served in plastic buckets and a generally dull and boring glaze in your eye. The one exception to this was the monkeys! All of the primates in fact! They never disappointed did they? You could count on the chimps to be sitting there in full view of God and everyone just masturbating or copulating away. Various monkeys would seem to take delight in crapping while you watched them and if you were really lucky you'd see them throw it at some tourist. Those damn simians were the best. I remember feeling jealous of them at times. Sure they were in cages but they could give free reign to all of the same impulses I had just twitching away beneath my 7 year old skin! Who doesn't love a chimp?

Well Monitor Records have done it again. Just when my frayed nervous system had recovered from their last release they bring this. From those same freaky folks that brought you the feral disco bliss of Indian Jewelry comes Part Chimp with this blistering compilation of singles, b-sides and unreleased material. Part Chimp's sound is what I'm sure would happen if those monkeys from the zoo formed a punk rock band. They make a loud, aggressive and untamed noise that hits you in all the right places. The sound is so reckless it seems that at any moment it could all fall apart into scattered splinters of scree. However just when it reaches these peaks the next verse slams down and the breakneck pace continues. To be quite honest I felt tired after listening. Tired in a good way that is. I can imagine the kids these days going nuts for Part Chimp. They sound snotty, rebellious and just flat out wild. Wild like a shark feeding frenzy with seal blood in the water. Wild like a beehive knocked over by a bear. Wild like a monkey orgy at the zoo on school fieldtrip day! I guess if you had to categorize this music as something it would be electro-punk. There's a bit of synth and drum machine action going on but underneath all of that howler monkey screaming, chainsaw guitar buzz and derailed train pace who's keeping track? To round things out they add a demented cover of The Beatles, "Wild Honey Pie". I'd say that if you're feeling low in the old batteries you could do worse than drop a few hits, crack some cans, slide this one into the system and start jumping up and down in wild simian joy. Final note: Love, love, love the artwork!