Reviewed by Kit Burns
Beaten by Yuri/Gerta
With a name like Beaten by Yuri, you realize that there are still interesting ways in which to call your band. Beaten by Yuri? What does it all mean? Who knows? And the same question can be posed to Gerta, Beaten by Yuri’s new record.
Beaten by Yuri is the kind of group that could probably give major-label execs massive headaches. This is a band that defies categorization, just doing whatever they like without apology or compromise. Some of it, such as “Killer’s Cousin and the Faults of Tomorrow,” remind me of Radiohead’s Kid A period of enigmatic experimentalism. However, after a couple of listens, you begin to understand what originally seemed like madness. Beaten by Yuri are working from the template set by the Beatles 40 years ago, a mish-mash of rock, psychedelia, and avant-garde pop that strips away the layers of reality and takes you onto a different plain of existence.
The screaming and yelling that sometimes disrupts the melodic flow of music, such as on the hilariously titled “Building an Aeroplane Without Prior Knowledge” and “Darling Uvula” is reminiscent of Frank Black’s maniac squealing on vintage Pixies records but Beaten by Yuri aren’t just about noise; they know how to free flow as well, let us sail the worlds in their subconcious with them. It’s a pretty trippy record so leave the artificial stimulants at home.
