What is a ‘Swamp Yankee’? “Ain’t hardly none ‘round hear son. You gotta go a little South, but not too South. Dey’s still Yankees mind.” And why does it matter? Because, sometimes something strange and wonderful comes from deep outta them swampy New England woods. Something like…CAKE!

Behold, SWAMP CAKE, a 2-song, 1st anniversary-release for the New Bedford trio CREATURE FROM DELL POND. One year in and this makes the third release from Nolan Sullivan, Gordon Walters and Noah Lapierre. This one is a lot more soulful and folk than either last October’s BANANA WORSHIP (a quirky electromix of chimp-themed musings) or their rockier summer debut EP GO EXIST. Both in themes and off-beatness, CFDP delightfully resemble odd-pop originals like DEVO and, more locally, COUNT ZERO. First track ‘Driving Horse’ is an acoustic reprise from that debut, and dives theatrically into cabaret territory to sell the band’s own poetic brand of existentialism. The second (er, other? last?) track ‘Eidetic Imagery’ swerves abruptly down memory lane to document a sad Valentine’s Day poem ripe with longing and regret. While both these tunes follow an ‘unplugged’ mode of expression, you should not judge this band as folk. Each subsequent release so far has been rather unlike earlier ones, a characteristic of very creative bands and worth clicking around to check out.