‘Freakish’, the new album from brother-sister duo Joe Gideon & The Shark, was written and recorded during, as the band put it, “most turbulent times”, referring to births, and deaths. This upheaval accounts for the 3 year wait for a second album.

Debut album ‘Harum Scarum’ burst the band onto the scene, earning them a treasure trove of pull-quotes from all the right places (“an inspired band with fire at their fingertips” – NME, “a terrific debut” – Uncut), earning invites to support the likes of Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and Seasick Steve, with Time Out calling them “one of the best live acts we’ve seen all year”. Glamorous sister Viva (The Shark)’s showy gymnastic drumming was the perfect yin to Gideon’s bookish, charmingly awkward yang. The album showcased their compelling blend of driving alt-rock riff-o-rama, with runaway offbeat monologues and intermittent melodious poignancy.

What we have here is idiosyncratic individuality on an entertainingly eccentric, possibly borderline lunatic, scale. We have songs inspired by Werner Herzog getting shot in the gut whilst being interviewed by Mark Kermode (‘The Insignificant Bullet’), true stories about being invited three years in a row to Elvis the dog’s birthday at the Queen’s Park bandstand, references to impersonating a priest, a cat called Sylvester, ping-pong, badly negotiating the London Underground doobied up to the eyeballs and ending up at the end of the line (‘You,
The Pole And The Rastafarian’).

Recorded, produced and mixed at Studio Plateaux on an island on the River Thames called Platts Eyot, by Kristian Craig Robinson – aka Capitol K – and Arp Cleveland – aka Mark – married to Viva, and chief conspirator of Archie Bronson Outfit.

It was then mastered in Miami by Kramer (Bongwater, Shimmy Disc).