Evaders of the Powerful Magnetosphere,

Bearsuit were a favourite band of legendary DJ John Peel – this is the extent of my Bearsuit knowledge. This fact doesn’t guarantee that they are good; I didn’t listen to John Peel much, I found much of the music grated with me, I preferred the shows when Rob da Bank deputised. When one of today’s top DJs, Gideon Coe, recommended this album (not to me personally, but to his audience, you should understand – why would I want to go to England?), I treated the advice with caution. I listened to their live session of BBC 6th Music and then I visited their MyArse site, this was where I saw that the members played many instruments – enough to rule them out of the “Twits and Guitars” genre and into my taste.

I have quite a few albums, by the likes of Architecture in Helsinki and Love is All, where manic orchestrations are prominent but oh:io by Bearsuit is of a higher strata of musical evolution (cf Walkabout by James Vance Marshall). The singing ranges from frenzied screaming to beautiful choral harmonies. The music ranges from classical string compositions to modern beepy electronic wizardry.

My favourite track is Foxy Boxer. It’s a swirling noodly one. Opening with the lyric, “wave your library cards in the air like you just don’t care”, the song climaxes in the warning that will stay in the head for hours, “never underestimate the power of a punch from a foxy boxer” and I don’t know how it got there.

Bearsuit are a quality band and they are great fun to listen to. The song titles are just part of that fun, Hark! The Feral Children, devote half an hour to this record.