An expanded edition of an album initially released in 2005,
The Cold Nose is a highly enjoyable, occasionally incredibly goofy tapestry of sample-heavy downtempo instrumentals, quirky electronic pop songs, and giggly pisstakes like "Forty Dollar Rug" (an apparent dig at
the Streets, based on the affected mockney accent) and the
De La Soul-like hip-hop lark "Family Romance." Like some kind of stoned jam session between
DJ Shadow,
the Magnetic Fields,
Portishead, and
R. Stevie Moore (whose own predilection for strange monologues in silly tape-manipulated vocals is evoked -- probably unknowingly -- on the whacked-out bonus track "Dinner for Two"),
The Cold Nose makes its own sort of idiosyncratic sense after a few listens -- possibly fewer if listened to under the same altered states it appears to have been recorded in. ~ Stewart Mason