Grampall Jookabox Scientific Cricket

Despite embracing pop song-structures and distilling their quirky eccentricism to an accessible level, Indianapolis-based, now-defunct art-rock collective BigBigCar was at heart, an incredibly strange group. When the group split in early 2007, leader David "Moose" Adamson was already working on a side-project - what was to become Grampall Jookabox - and would fully embrace the project after his band's breakup.

Scientific Cricket is the first fruits of the songwriters' labours. Aggressively lo-fi and weird, Scientific Cricket weds Adamson's American Folk with psych and art-rock tendencies.

BigBigCar always seemed like a dichotomy of a band - split over pop predilections and more arty tendencies. With Scientific Cricket, Adamson heads further in the direction of the latter.

Most of the tracks on this record carry no resemblance to the group that helped shape some of these songs (BigBigCar performed a few of these songs live before breaking up). Yet Take Me from Diamond Head and Earlobe Kite contain elements of BigBigCar's epochal, art-punk style. Highly melodic, these songs represent the moment when Adamson is best able to mesh his conflicting styles.

Then there's Barbarashop Cricketet pretty much the best case for Adamson's status as a one-man Animal Collective.

Some reviews have made the point that Scientific Cricket operates as an attempt to recapture the dusty, faded glory of the American Folk tradition. Yet Grampall Jookabox's sound is far too urban to really qualify.

Despite being in the unfortunate position of being from Indiana - where art goes to die - Grampall Jookabox has released one of the best records this year.