The words in the title of this post are a mouthful. More specifically, a mouthful of eighteen syllables that seem better suited to a review for the soundtrack of a Bollywood horror musical. Thank god there is a hyphen in there, otherwise this post would have read like this: “First Listen: Serena Maheesh’s Serena Maneesh 2: Abyss in B Minor.”

If it’s not obvious by now, I didn’t know anything about this band before I gave S-M 2: Abyss in B Minor a First Listen. Sure, I could have Wiki-ed the shit out of them and pretended to myself like I knew what was up, but I figured I would save that for later. Why not just dive right in? All I had to go on was the press release that accompanied the promotional download, which told me that they were 1) Norwegian and 2) a good band. Like… a really good band. Okay, the press release fucking loved them. I guess I missed the boat (the Knarr?) when their self-titled debut came out in 2005. I haven’t listened to it yet. But I might.

First, though, I’m going to give S-M 2: AIBM a Second Spin. I didn’t love it, but god damn is it one strange album. Just all over the place with songs that stopped, stuttered, started and merged in to one another. They did that thing where the next song started at the end of the song you were listening to. It seems kind of gimmicky (and really, it is) but they pulled it off. In large part because everything is so batshit weird. The album is a foggy cloud of textural noise with clear bubbles of melody, lyrics, and grooves that occasionally float by as you stumble around, kind of lost. It’s a lot like Can. And I really like Can. The real question is whether or not those moments will be enough to sustain multiple listens, especially when you know they are coming. The album comes out on March 23rd.