That’s more difficult to do than you might think. Even ‘experimental’ music these days generally falls into pretty timeworn, generic categories. Sound collage? Noise? A body suit covered in MIDI triggers? Whatever you’re doing, chances are someone’s done it before. So what exactly is Katie Dey doing? At its core it’s psychedelic pop. It’s pretty weird psych pop to be sure, but not exactly unprecedented. On her second solo album, Flood Network, there are obvious echoes of Animal Collective’s euphoric insanity, although I hear older things, like early Mercury Rev, in the twee, but lushly orchestrated haze, or those quiet Scandi cuties Múm. The more I listen the more I hear a strong ‘90s acoustic-pop strain coming through, although I struggle to put a finger on it, Julianna Hatfield or Belly, maybe?. The rhythms are vibrant and complex, occasionally tapping into the angular sunshine of Battles when Dey really cuts loose. Like I said: complex, unusual but not strictly revolutionary.

What’s really different is Dey herself and a voice that’s truly bizarre. The closest reference I can think of is the constricted, helium fuelled sound of Ween -do you remember Push The Little Daisies?- but that’s only an approximation. Quiet, cute beyond belief and then treated to sound a bit like fingernails on a chalkboard. It’s one of those ‘so crazy it just might work’ things, and, yeah, it does. Which is good, because she extends that weird treatment to a close formation of trebley sounds that whip backwards and forward along the whole length of Flood Network.

Being so shocked by Katie Dey’s sound is potentially a little embarrassing for some of us here in Australia. We should probably be a bit more familiar with the Melbourne-based musician by now. Flood Network is her second full-length and the first, asdfasdf wasn’t a bedroom release. It came out on Orchid Tapes (home to the relatedly weird-pop of Alex G, among others) and turned heads at places like Pitchfork. I have a funny feeling that this may be a second musical life for Dey, too. She apparently was involved with Universal, of all things, at some point, possibly when she lived in New Zealand? If that’s the case, Dey is keeping a tight lid on it. Really it’s just another eyebrow raiser to add to the list here.

When encountering Katie Dey the thing is, whatever outburst you have, just get over it and listen to Flood Network. Get past the fact that it’s full of strange, thirty second fragments. Listen to the whole thing: follow the tangles of weird noise because they all lead, sooner rather than later to hooks of pure pop. She’s imbibing so much of the last twenty years of alt-pop history, recreating it perfectly and then flipping it on its ear. Katie Dey is very much her own bizarre, pop thing and that’s something you really need to hear.

- Chris Cobcroft.