This week’s podcast features Cryptacize, an Oakland quartet of eclectic pop wizards who recently released their excellent sophomore album, Mythomania. The band is led by Nedelle Torrisi and Chris Cohen, each of whom first found creative success separately — the former as the solo artist Nedelle and Cohen with The Curtains and Deerhoof. After Torrisi performed background vocals on a Curtains recording and became a touring member of the band, the duo began writing music together. The new songs birthed a new band, Cryptacize. Like The Curtains, this band’s interests are many and varied, and although their approach is stripped-down, they make each voice and instrument matter in crafting engaging, theatrical pop.
In April, Cryptacize released Mythomania, a record that critics have praised for simultaneously focusing the musicians’ prodigious talents into some quite engaging songs while preserving the band’s knack for complex, musically diverse works. In addition to the great music, the album is also full of charming and intriguing lyrical nuggets, told from the perspective of narrators one would be careful not to always trust. Mythomania, after all, is another name for the condition of pathological lying. One thing that isn’t a lie, however, is that Cryptacize has made an exciting record well worth checking out, and with European and US tours ahead, it’s a good time to catch on to this excellent band.
We sat down with Chris and Nedelle to discuss the band’s approach to the new album and the finer points of recording in a cabin. We’ve also got four songs from Mythomania in the episode.
