Lost Marbles and Exploded Evidence

Enon:
Lost Marbles and Exploded Evidence

[Touch and Go; 2005]
Rating: 7.7
Can't remember many bands whose B-sides/rarities comp things I liked as much as their full-lengths, but here's one. That's not a backhanded compliment either: High Society is one of the best straight-up indie rock albums of the past decade, and Enon's last one, Hocus Pocus, wasn't nearly as bad or disappointing as everyone made it out to be. "The Power of Yawning" and "Candy" yucked it up, sure, but John Schmersal and Toko Yasuda really were just starting to write together, and when the two did jive, Enon gave us "Starcastic" and "Disposable Parts"-- as unyuck as songs get.

Lost Marbles And Exploded Evidence-- playing off seven-inches entitled "Evidence" and "Marbles Explode", both included-- collects Enon's non-LP material released on wax, as mag promos, and web exclusives from as early as April 1998, when Enon was just Schmersal, some synths, and a sampler. In fact, the comp covers all four of Enon's line-ups, an understandable red flag for "inconsistency" and "grab-bagginess" and "fans only, non-fans!" as crits who are anxious to pounce on these guys have lazily pointed out. Weeeee.

Thing is, guys, the comp's way less about caulking Enon's cracks and way more about jocking Schmersal. He deserves the love, frankly. He's one of indie rock's most consistently compelling songwriters; this comp shows Schmersal can also take the band in more experimental directions, indulging his whims but only for our pleasure. Drum machine/gristly saxophone face-off "Genie's Got Her Bag" throbs like a jazz-funk great; crooked lullabies "Blow Infinite Ways", "Making Merry! Merry!", and "Fly South" posterkid DIY lo-fi way better than that Ariel Pink guy; "Party Favor" wants to be Odelay, and to the song's credit, it pretty much is.

So that's the experimental stuff. As for the rest of Lost Marbles, Enon stumble a bit on schmaltzy Toko triphoppers "Drowning Appointments" and "Evidence", and lap-pop number "Kanon" is just OK. Most other songs are rockers though, on par with the band's best moments on High Society and Hocus Pocus. Schmersal and Yasuda meet halfway on opener "Knock That Door", a sunnier, sillier "In This City". "Marbles Explode", released in 2001 but recorded two years before that, remains my favorite Enon song, though. It has plenty of vocoder and herk-and-jerk and bonsai synth lines, noise that's obedient to song and not vice versa, and my favorite Pygmalionism: "There's a girl inside my heart that's only four beats old/ I'm facing forward or so I am told/ Now fluxuating with a kiss into another mode/ And now she's dressing up her dolls before the marbles explode."

P.S.: There's a DVD too.

P.P.S.: Brainiac!
- Nick Sylvester, February 24, 2005