Department of Eagles: The Cold Nose

Label: American Dust

This reissue of Department of Eagles’s 2003 album “The Whitey On The Moon UK” features Daniel Rossen of Grizzly Bear on vocals and guitars, and Fred Nicolaus on samples duty. The Brooklyn duo have created a distinctive sound by messing around with samples, and laying their experimental, beat-driven musical collages on top of oddly structured pop songs. “Sailing by Night” begins as a typical melancholic indie pop song but veers into drum and bass territory and a grandiose keyboard outro. Another highlight of the album, “Forty Dollar Rug”, starts off with an eerie Ennio Morricone-like operatic sample but somehow turns into an old school hip-hop track sung with fake British accents. This mixture of clashing musical styles and quirky beats and noises, buried under layers of disjointed samples, makes for a wonderfully eclectic and intriguing listening experience. (Morgane)