Album Review: Skelliconnection by Chad VanGaalen

Recorded nearly single-handedly in his basement in Calgary (there are some guest drummers to keep the modifier in place), Chad VanGaalen -- who even invented some of the instruments he played -- had over 100 songs to choose from when deciding the track listing for his sophomore album, Skelliconnection. Perhaps that explains why there's a great deal of diversity among the 15 that made the final cut. From the metal-ish guitar riffing on "Flower Gardens" to the fractured piano on "Dandrufff" to the haunting vocals on "Rolling Thunder," from the folky acoustic guitar on "Wing Finger" to the drum machine on "Viking Rainbow," it's abundantly clear that VanGaalen isn't afraid to explore different sounds and genres while staying in his indie rock realm.

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The follow up to Chad VanGaalen's blog-obsessing Infiniheart is a discontinuous, but eccentrically charming affair. The Calgary busker made good last year on the strength of his wavering, affected voice, laced with strange sounds from home-made instruments. Like the debut, Skelliconnection was drawn from a stock of hundreds of basement-taped songs – VanGaalen had apparently recorded two albums worth of new material in the interim between his first album on Sub Pop and the one you're reading about right now.

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