The self-titled debut album from Calgary art-punks Parisian Orgy lands with a healthy dose of weird and wonderful invention together with a keen ear for melodies that you just can’t shake.

Parisian Orgy began life as a solo project in the late 2010s and have since evolved into a five-piece collective.  Their self-titled debut album opens with the discordant Bubbling Boy, followed by a cover of Four Boys by early 1980s’ Parisian new wavers Tokow Boys.  By this point, I already knew not to expect matters to follow anything like a linear path, but that is probably just about all that I did correctly anticipate.

The base elements are pretty consistent – strummed guitars, limber rhythms, skittering synths, jarring toy horns, and xylophones.  However, Parisian Orgy consistently morph and twist them into the most unexpected of shapes, some frenetic, others altogether more languid, while the yelping vocals and their repetitive mantras conjure up tales of the absurd.

The key to the album’s impact is that everything fizzes with an organic, improvisational energy that skips without a care past the forced wilfulness that can sometimes bedevil more experimental projects.   The mouth organ (I think) fuelled languor of Jazz Song For Shrimp, the jauntily escalating Come Pretty Pump Sleep, and the pulsing bass line and soaring ‘la, la, las’ of  Belly Button Trap Door each land with a vibrant fervour.