February Birthdays 
Brian asked me to listen to this album recently submitted to the site for review (thanks Brian!). I've given it a couple spins, and I've formed a couple opinions, and here we are. I guess I should give an official disclaimer here that my opinions don’t represent those of SG101 or of Brian. If you disagree with me, be nice to Brian. Brian’s cool 
Based on my superficial digging around online, “Cannibal Mosquitos Surprise Attack” is the first (almost) full-length album (nine songs, including a short intro track) from France’s trio surf band Cannibal Mosquitos. This album isn’t quite brand new – it was released last year, but this is the first time I’d heard anything from or about these guys. Apparently they’ve got more material and releases in the works, so my impression is that these guys are relatively fresh faces in the scene – entomo-humanoid faces, it appears.
On that note, my first impression of this band: killer look! With matching orange jumpsuits and home-made mosquito masks (are those cat litter scoopers on their mouths?) these guys look like they’re ready to put on a wild act. It looks part prison break, part sci-fi future dystopia, and got me pretty excited when I first check out the artwork for this album. I imagine it’s gotta help make for a fun live show as well.
So judging this band by their cover, they get high marks – a strategic starting point to start listening to an album in a good mood. Sadly, I have to say the rest of the experience of being Surprise Attacked is mostly a disappointment. This is best (or worst) exemplified by the very first track, “Cannibal Mosquitos.” It’s a forty-second intro, plodding I-IV-V riff rocker, riding on crash cymbals with a riff of no more than two notes and annoying megaphone feedback in the turnaround. Pretty aggravating and pretty inadequate; a song like this is not sustainable for more than forty seconds, so it’s a good thing it ends so quickly. My hope was that the band recognized this fact too, and that later real songs would be better developed, but unfortunately things don’t get significantly better from there, though they do get a little better.
The next song, “Lost Mojo” picks up the pace a bit, throws in some whammy dips and a bit more melodic range with an ascending line that’s maybe a bit spy-inspired. Nothing that grabs too much attention, though I do like the bridge and break in the middle of the song which brings down the dynamics with a couple cool and kinda mysterious riffs.
The rest of this album is largely more-of-same: slow-picked riff rockers that lead to nowhere, except maybe a bridge that’s just another I-IV-V progression. “Surprise Attack of the Mosquitos” should be two minutes instead of four, the intro/outro soundbites on “Il Trajedie Dell Autostrada” and “Rotten Chicken Run” are too long (a mistake that’s befallen other bands plenty of times, even those who used them best like MoAM), and “Wave of Death” is, again, only two notes 
There’s a lot of consistency among these and the remaining songs. Overall the performances are really lively – hard hits on the drums, crashing cymbals, and dirty, garage-y guitar tones that are at times appropriately mean and other times just murky. I suspect these guys would be a lot of fun to see live when you’re drunk at a small packed club or a house party, great for just a sloppy, fun, lively time.
But that approach doesn’t translate well to a recording here, there’s simply not enough substance. One particular peeve: these guys are a trio, which isn’t in and of itself a bad thing, but at least half the time on each of these songs the guitar and bass are playing the exact same thing, or if not the bass is simply playing root notes. And without a rhythm guitar that means there’s simply no counterpoint to grab onto. To my ears, that's inadequate. C'mon guys, you can do better!
If there’s one song that successfully avoids the pitfalls of the others it’s “The Very Bad and The Very Good Mosquitos,” which is easily my favorite of the bunch. It’s more melodic, more dynamic, and more swinging than the rest. Pretty fun. I’d even go so far as to say that I like this song. Kudos to the Cannibal Mosquitos. I think it shows that they’ve got potential. There are a lot of rough edges to smooth, but hopefully their future stuff will become a bit more developed.
