Pitchfork

In the shady but room-temperature realm of internet journalism, it's a given that one ought to review an artist's discography prior to penning a report. The fact is, some records hold up better over time, lodging themselves in our immediate memory with the slightest of ease. Here's where the tangent ties in: if you prompted me for my favorite qualities of Enon's aught-two opus, High Society, I'd react in a nanosecond. Adjectives would drop like a cascade of hydrogen bombs. I'd be quick to note that while the melodies were only crooked enough to catch interest, the album was a brilliant and subtly-tiered investment in an intelligence that reached beyond the introductive lobby. Superfluous crap like that.

Now let's assume my mind was already working in Enon-overdrive. Desperately salivating at the semantical image of High Society, I should be able enough to quickly summarize the album's September 2003 followup, Hocus Pocus, correct?

No dice. If you asked me on an average day what I thought about the record, I'd stammer in a way that I wanted to appear thoughtful, while nervously racking my brain for a suitable cue. Hocus Pocus... Give me a second... Oh, right. It was sort of translucent. No, not in a "Cocteau Twins kind of way", give me a second. I mean, everything about the record was laid out on the table. It's hard to say "linear" and keep a straight face, because the source impressions pop a couple of curves. If High Society left a zig-zag pattern in the soil behind, Hocus Pocus was a horizontal line with a couple of blips. Granted, both albums mostly tug from two distinctive ends-- a crunchy, guitar-driven hop and a retro-futuristic bounce-- but the former of the two caught us off guard, while the somewhat inconsistent distension of Hocus Pocus could be spotted a mile away.

Despite being the ill-fated sequel to an undisputed work of genius, it turns out that the album actually holds plenty of terrific moments. The mellow but mobile melodies of "Shave." The electric jaunt of "The Power of Yawning." The unmitigated pop perfection of "Daughter in the House of Fools"-- that song alone is enough to jolt anyone out of musical lethargy. Perhaps Hocus Pocus is not without its subtleties after all: at the very least, it's a destination well worth the time to revisit. That said, the band is stepping out for a North American tour, beginning in March and winding down around April. Accompanying them on a number of these dates include the impenetrable shades of the Black Heart Procession, the affably diagonal rock 'n' stylings of Pinback, and the, uh, well, there's also the Wrens, and they're fucking brilliant. Party onwards, internet rockers:

03-18 Washington, D.C. - Black Cat *
03-19 Philadelphia, PA - NXNW *
03-20 New York, NY - Bowery Ballroom *
03-21 Boston, MA - Middle East *
03-22 Montreal, Quebec - La Salla Rossa *
03-23 Toronto, Ontario - Lee's Palace *
03-24 Buffalo, NY - Nietzche's *
04-08 Purchase, NY - SUNY (w/ The Wrens)
04-14 Chicago, IL - Logan Square
04-20 Denver, CO - Bluebird theater
04-26 San Francisco, CA - Bimbo's (w/ Pinback)
04-27 Los Angeles, CA - Troubadour (w/ Pinback)
04-29 Costa Mesa, CA - Detroit Bar
05-01 Albuquerque, MN - Launch Pad
05-02 Norman, OK - Opolis
05-04 Champaign, IL - Cowboy Monkey
05-07 Newport, KY - Southgate House
05-08 Athens, OH - Living Room
05-12 Akron, OH - Lime Spider

* with the Black Heart Procession

As previously reported, Enon also recently reissued their 2001 instrumental effort On Hold through German label Slowboy. The pressing is limited to 500 copies, all vinyl, and bunded with a brand new seven-incher. Sexy.