If there's one thing I really got out of this album as I digested and dissected it my first go-around, it was the certainty that the late 80's Paisley Underground movement and Germany's early to mid 70's classic Krautrock era all pulled from the same well of inspiration. Drugged out rhythms, a rickety marriage of spazzy vocals and avant-garde production to the repetitive, occasionally jazz-based instrumentation (sax and flute especially) and lush underpinnings of classic fusion groups. All of these elements can be disparate, but Crown Larks weave a difficult web into something both beautiful and shockingly cohesive. In fact, the work here at times sounds like a sister album to the classic Y by The Pop Group, though the choice of dialect between the two is fundamentally different.

The short and sweet of it is that at the end of the day I like experimental records to justify their existence to me, and Population does just that in spades. My criteria with all music is pretty simple: a good smooth jazz record validates its reason to be if it has some great melodies / production or captures a specific vibe. A great Third Stream album needs to balance its modal and classic tendencies well to really work, etc. etc. No matter what genre or style you go for, there are things to look for and I know what works and doesn't.

That one works fellas. Very very well. Give it a whirl if you feel deprived of strangeness and want a shot in the arm.