review of Cobo Foofaroo's Mallards and Lasers

Artist: Cobo Foofaroo
Album: Mallards and Lasers
Review by Deejay O

While once a live band, Austin ’s Cobo Foofaroo apparently has retreated into studio hermitry. More bands should do this if they could get results one-fourth this artistic! A unique mutation, Foofaroo straddle a tenuous niche between goofy whimsy and clever technicality. Mallards and Lasers captures them at their exuberant, sprawling, profligate prime: obscure odes to food and domestic bliss, lovely melodic violin lines winsomely counteracting churning math-metered beats, experimental meanderings subverted by odd avant-popisms. Unlike some prog cousins and relations, Cobo Foofaroo keeps the wizards n’ elves out of the mix. Think about food instead. Fans of Frank Zappa, Gentle Giant, Fred Frith, They Might be Giants, Camper van Beethoven, early Talking Heads, and zolo will want to bob their tentacles along to this infectious, fun, intricate but playful music.