April Birthdays 
A bump for anybody, who might have missed this record when it was first released. Honestly I am a bit shocked that this hasn't received more reviews so far, since it is such a fantastic piece of modern surf music. (See some other comments here.)
The current MOAM? tour reminded me of this great CD, which I bought last year when I saw Threesome here in Berlin. I was very impressed (to say the least) and although I try to go to all the surf shows in Berlin I do not always feel compelled to buy a record. This time I did.
In general the music on this album is on the heavier side but rather in terms of playing than in the sound, i.e. the guitars retain a clean sound with reverb most of the time; not that much distortion used as in some other modern surf bands, but played with a lot of power and precision.
It is hard to pick any outstanding tracks from this fine album since there seems to be something new and yet unheard in almost every single song. So instead I will try to explain the main components of Threesome's style through a short "analysis" of three songs:
In "First Wave" we get a actually pretty simple riff after a few introductory chords. The band however then combines this riff with a second one, which is quite complicated rhythmically, and repeats this combination in different variations, which creates enormous tension. Then there is a short breakdown with accentuated chords and a nice little contrasting melody before we got back to even more variations of the main riffs. Need I say that all this is played with high energy and precision?
I honestly don't know the meaning of "Glise 581c", but the song once again shows the band's mastery in variation and rhythmic experiments: This time the main melody appears as a seamless continuation of the rhythm of the introduction. After a short drum break and some interesting bass parts, the song seems to "fall apart" for a moment as the guitar re-enters with chords vibrated to the edge of noise. I just love moments like these, when everything seems to get out of hand but is indeed in total control! We get a (deserved but short) moment of relaxation after that, before the band returns to the main theme, which this time is contrasted with yet another more lyrical part.
"Lull" the closing song of the album could be a reference to the medieval philosopher Raimundus Lullus, but I somehow doubt it. Could be some kind of "Lullaby" though since here Threesome show that besides their ability to "rock out" they also have a great melodic sensibility. Somehow the song reminds me of "Third Stone from the Sun" by Jimi Hendrix (or even more the version Stevie Ray Vaughan played live). Not that there is any substantial link between these songs, but they have the same lyric quality and create a similar impression of floating or hovering for me.
So there you have it: A record which has a lot of energy, shows a great amount of talent in songwriting, variation and has a characteristic sound to it. Honestly how anybody would come up with stuff like this is beyond my imagination. I would be extremly interested in just witnessing the song writing process: All tunes (except "Interstellar Harddrive" by MOAM?) are credited to the whole band rather than a single member, which is probably why the band sounds like no other surf band around and why this (debut!) album is as good as it is.
—Los Apollos - cinematic surf music trio (Berlin)
"Postcards from the Scrapyard" Vol. 1, 2 & 3 NOW available on various platforms!
"Chaos at the Lobster Lounge" available as LP and download on Surf Cookie Records!
