Thomas Truax - Why Dogs Howl At The Moon

Self-confessed musical eccentrics tend to disappoint. Full of garbled attention seeking proclamations, they never quite deliver when capturing their ingenuity in song. But New Yorker Thomas Truax doesn't just walk the oddball walk; he runs, skips, jumps and pirouettes it. New album Why Dogs Howl At The Moon is the aural actualisation of this lunatic character's skewed approach to song-structuring. A Tim Burton styled visionary, Truax and his self-assembled Hornicator (essentially a gargantuan, spring infused gramophone) gnarl through the eerie Waits-esque remonstrations of Escape From New York and Like a Fallen Tree. If verse-chorus-verse conformity is what you crave, then Why Dogs Howl will disappoint; every track offers an incongruent take on visceral gypsy-cabaret. But in the woozy carousel charm of Sea Creatures and You Whistle While You Sleep's double-bass funk Truax proves just how engrossing a little peculiarity can be. This is one eccentric who does not disappoint. [Billy Hamilton]