Rock / Indie Recommendations February 2012

Review: Some 13 years after dropping their decidedly skewiff debut album, Finnish oddballs Pepe Deluxe are still going strong. Queen Of The Wave, their fourth full-length for Brighton-based Catskills, continues their progression from cut-and-paste mavericks to full-blown band. As usual, pinning them down musically is nigh on impossible. One minute, they'll be delivering a kitsch, organ-heavy slice of weirdo lounge-pop ("Temple Of Unfed Fire") or poodle perm-sporting cutesy pomp-rock ("Contain Thyself"), the next spy theme psyche-rock ("Grave Prophecy") or Gilbert & Sullivan-ish operettas ("Go Supersonic"). It's an off mixture, for sure, but one that's curiously lovable.