Despite the short time that they’ve been together Emetrex have probably recorded one of the best American psychedelia releases that I’ve heard so far this year. Like other American imports Mercury Rev, Wheat, Beulah & Grandaddy they’re not afraid of a bit of experimentation.

The weakest track on the CD is the title track ‘The birds your brother’ the birdsong samples, layered guitars and swirling keyboard sounds are brilliant but are let down by the indistinct murmuring. Rick’s vocals are a lot clearer on the b-sides and get better as the each song passes. During ‘I feel so badly (really)’ he resentfully whispers “nobody cares about you now” over hypnotic swirling waves of sounds. He also feels cheated on ‘Thunderstruck’ where his vocals improve and but and this time he sounds like the dEUS main man Tom Barman.

‘The wire’ is very different to the first two and has quite a cheery start with 30 seconds of random notes being played on a keyboard, after that stops a home-recorded acoustic number begins. This reminds me off early Grandaddy songs and is my personal fav. ‘Nothings Wrong’ is the most optimistic song, with its acoustic guitars, simple bass and percussion rhythm and annoyingly catchy melodies; it carries you off to place in Rick’s dreamlike world. If your feeling depressed and want sometime to cheer you up buy this CD as I’m certain it’ll do the trick.