The press release I got with this album describes one Vice Cooler, aka Hawnay Troof (well I guess when your real name is already *that* ridiculous...) as a "left-field prodigy" and an "outsider artist". But I'd describe him as a really ludicrously fucking fun musician.Islands of Ayle is young Hawnay's third album but I must admit the first I've heard of him, my kneejerk reaction to this record therefore being something along the lines of: "where have you been all my life?" What I basically look for, about 80% of the time in music, this guy delivers in big backbreakingly heavy bundles of fun. Because I don't want crystalline soundscapes or acoustic mumblings or even the smallest scraps of ‘accomplishment'. I want what might perhaps perfectly be described as "completely fucked-up pop music" (thanks press release). Well, maybe such a large proportion of all the best music wasn't always *quite* there, but now you just have to look at your Cats In Parises, your Gay Against Yous, your Animal Collectives, your Death Sets, your Dan Deacons, your (RIP) Cutting Pink With Knives- your Hawnay Troofs. Who's ready for weird fun?With his skewed synths and beats and yelping non-flow, Hawnay Troof exists somewhere in the middle ground between failed pop and failed hip-hop and yet still manages to make everything he does such a massive *success*. It's the sound of a man who has long since realized he will never be some sort of superstar white-boy rapper and has as a result looked for -and found- the best possible way around that problem. ‘Two Week Bruise' is really just big, arpeggiated synths, a few synthesized handclaps, Cooler shout-rapping about something or other and very little else but by Christ its awesome. There is a pretty consistent synth sound throughout the record which perhaps detracts from how much of a collage it really is- you know its really not instantly apparent unless you actually *think* about it. And is this really music designed for thinking at all? Its more the type of thing you think about post-listening, because of how brilliant it was and stuff and like what makes it so different and fun.The other thing about Islands of Ayle is that it apparently has a wide range of esteemed guests, such as Xiu Xiu, Randy from No Age and High Places' Mary Pearson. But then, I can only really identify Pearson, who I'm pretty sure is the one moaning seductively and yelling "touch me!" on ‘Underneath The Ocean'. I'm probably most interested to know where Xiu Xiu crop up.So yeah, this is a really really good record. Since I got it its probably accounted for about 40% of my listening rotation at the time of writing, and for a while it was much higher. I actually *volunteered* to do this review of it despite being sent it separately. Now that's dedication- I'm not even getting free stuff *purely* for writing this. Thank me later, universe. The 11th and 13th tracks, ‘Bizarre Triangle' and ‘Out Of Teen Revisited' could both be fantastic closers and its almost like they're competing with each other really- ‘Bizarre Triangle' all destructive repetition but ‘Out Of Teen...' much more shoutily optimistic. "We got no rules! Live with no rules!" Pretty much where it is, you know? 89%Hawnay Troof on MySpace