Stars Like Fleas is a collective with a shifting membership and a list of collaborators/members from roughly a metric ton of other bands, Out Hud, At The Drive-In, Fiery Furnaces, Beirut, TV On The Radio, to name but a few. Presumably founders Shannon Fields and Montgomery Knott are at the centre of this swirling activity over the two previous albums, and now The Ken Burns Effect is here, released on Hometapes for the US, (last year it was put out by Talitres in Europe). What we find is sprawling free folk, walls have been disassembled and jazz-inspired use of the instruments creates an eye-opening experience.The loosest track on the album ‘Early Riser’ uses Musique Concrète, tapping of instrument bodies and scrapings on a wall can be heard. It’s hard to tell where it transitions from this to more traditional song based territory, because a lot of the time there is also off-key sawing on violin, a shaker being shook and formless vocals. It all slowly congeals into a lulling chorus, most elements dropping in and out at various points. These waves of blurred form are carried throughout this album, in ‘Falstaff’ it sounds like a mix of celtic folk, jazz and eastern spirituality, with fiddles, saxophone, tinkling chimes and electric guitar. ‘Berbers In Tennis Shoes’ is strange, with African references, out of tune guitar staggerings, wobbly synth that sounds Japanese and syrupy yet playful singing, all making an appearance. Droning aspects can also be heard snaking through the album, ‘Some Nettles’ has an indefinable bass and layered violins pulling on one note, ‘Karma’s Hoax’ has keyboards, sax and violin drawing out a high fluting tone, ‘Toast Suren’ holds down a bassy sound underneath waves of those formless elements mentioned previously.Montgomery Knott’s vocals are a slippery whine, recalling Matthew Houck of Phosphorescent, much like the album itself which is similar to last year’s Pride. With these vocals comes the more traditional side as when Knott sings there is often a discernable structure, with melody and chorus and hook making their appearances. Soaring positivity shines through ‘I Was Only Dancing’, the vocals are frothy and joyous, keyboards strike up a beautiful sequence refrain and the piano spirals upwards in euphoria. A 1960s European feel is injected into ‘You Azre My Meoir’, by the use of guitar strums in a descending chord sequence, a keyboard sound straight from 60s France, brass instruments and a piano. The song as a whole, though, also mixes in electronics and dissonant pieces, shifting as most of the tracks do, between the bands two aesthetics. The awesome closing track ‘Some Nettles’ takes 7 of its 12 minutes to arrive at it’s triumphant point. Lap steel, that drone mentioned earlier, nervy percussion, slippery sweet vocals which flare up into a burning group chant and the general glorious cacophony of various instruments, all make this the highlight of the album.The Ken Burns Effect is named after the Ken Burns Effect; while I suppose I can see that the idea of moving from formless free folk into a more structured place then back again kinda mirrors the idea of the Effect, the influence isn’t really all that obvious. But the good news is that it doesn’t need to be, this is a graceful album that has an assured stride and a strong sense of direction, you don’t need to be able to see it’s inner workings. 76%Links Stars Like Fleas [myspace] [label]