"Snow Tip Cap Mountain" lightly echoes glockenspiel pangs as a melodramatic theremin tickles listeners with its strange allure and alien charisma. "Truck" blips and beeps into feel-good melodies and blissful guitars hopping to and fro from sweat soaked, dance-till-you-drop anthems to the frosty winter solstice celebrations. "Bees Bein Strugglin'" is an atmospheric number full of ghastly distorted guitars and synthesizer tinkers. Enveloping this dreamy number are otherworldly charms that are foreign to the ear. Tranquil and thriving "An Evening with Rthrtha" is as melodious as ever. Full of passion and growth, strings thrust and shimmer while guitars skip and scribble.

Following suit to the synth-swollen "Truck" comes "Black Blizzard/Red Umbrella"; a track that pops and fizzles to more pattering blips and beats than before. Incorporating piano keys into the arsenal makes this instrumental combination strange and appealing to say the least. Roadside "Upmann" lightly echoes drums as passing cars trail on in the background. Heavy breaths and synth squiggles reverberate throughout this strange organism, finally emanating a futuristic theremin wail. Leaning towards acid techno is the incandescent "Mmaj". As it whimpers and blisters, it sends static signals and fuzz whilst sprinkling lighthearted tinkling melodies. For being the most electronica-based track on this eccentric album, it remains pleasing to the ear. Trickling, tempestuous strains gust during "I Saw the Bright Shinies", a pleasant little song whistling theremin whirls as a crackling beat contains the nostalgic beauty of the phantasmic instrument. "Ghost Moves" is a step in another direction, spastically blasting drums, wooing synth and scribbling guitar. Simplistic and emotive "Vanishing Lessons" mixes guitar and piano into a generic fairytale soundtrack turned tonic mutation of fizzling and furious guitar riffs and rough and tumble textures. "Exploding Snowhorse" begins with time bomb guitar riffs and static scratched synth beats that pucker and puncture to stuporus atmospherics. "Loud Murmuring" mumbles tranquil melodies as a choir of strings stretches in bemusement as metal beats spring and jitter. Then, as the final strings gently drift away, the luscious "Queen" begins. Intricate chimes, varied cheery blips and quaint one-track-only vocals stimulate and congregate. Hello, Avalanche is consummately musical and deeply satisfying.

Sweeping the Coachella Festival and the Austin Music Awards (where they were awarded: Best Experimental Band, Best Indie Band, Best Instrumental Band, Best Miscellaneous Instrument � Yvonne Lambert on Theremin � and top ten placement in eight other categories), The Octopus Project has left listeners spellbound from their monster musical pile-up. Embedding jovial melodies and craggy distorted guitars within its pensive rhythmic backdrop, The Octopus Project's third installment explores varied sounds and shapes that the trio concoct themselves. What a joy it is to find an album as intelligent, resourceful and compassionate as this one.

The Octopus Project Interview

And now here is Erika's exclusive interview with Toto Miranda and Yvonne Lambert of The Octopus Project.

antiMusic: What were all of you doing before you started performing as The Octopus Project?

TOP: Being born, growing up, learning the lessons of the streets. We'd known each other for a while before we started the band in 1999 and some of us had played together in various formations, but Josh, Yvonne and I started the band to see what would happen if we focused on our collaborations.

antiMusic: Why did you decide to name the band The Octopus Project?

TOP: We're named after a Danish cartoon from the 50's about an old man who runs a home for orphaned octopuses.

antiMusic: Why is your latest album titled Hello, Avalanche?

TOP: The title comes from a concept by Daniel Lazarte, one of our favorite authors�the idea is that a young boy has become friends with a mountain, and the mountain sometimes greets the boy with avalanches. Rather than fear the avalanches, the boy welcomes them as a joyful hello. I'm paraphrasing, but you get the picture.

antiMusic: On Hello, Avalanche, what were your favorite songs and why?

TOP: I think my favorite song on the record is "Truck" � it's a blast to play live and I think we managed to nail a pretty exciting version for the album�capturing the energy of a live performance can be quite a trick, but I think we got it on this one. Go team!

antiMusic: How did you decide on the song titles?

TOP: We keep a running list of funny/enigmatic/stupid things that fall out of our mouths, and when we need a title we run down the list and see what fits. Usually this process works out pretty well, the song sort of retroactively adapts to the title and they become one. Sometimes the official title doesn't fit as well as whatever idiotic working title we've been using and it retains the dumb title in our minds and working vocabulary.

antiMusic: How would you describe each of your albums and what motivated you at the time of each?

TOP: We never start out working on an album with specific ideas on what it should be, but I think we have some general goals and directions that we're always heading towards � making the most exciting, vivid, beautiful and/or noisy record we possibly can � and that each of our albums represents our progress towards those goals. I love them all, but I would describe each one as a huge step forward and I'm always excited to see what's next!

antiMusic: Who are your influences, musical and otherwise?

TOP: Short list: Deerhoof, Madlib, Led Zeppelin, Delia Derbyshire, Werner Herzog, Michel Gondry, Chris Ware, Brad Neely, Pastis (the drink).

antiMusic: How do you go about making music?

TOP: Just hit record and let the solid gold flow from our fingertips! Sometimes. Other times it's like pulling teeth. (They're still golden teeth). Our specific techniques are many and varied. And top secret and boring.

antiMusic: Is there anyone you'd especially enjoy working with?

TOP: See answer to #7. Especially Pastis.

antiMusic: To Yvonne: What got you interested in playing the Theremin?

Yvonne: "I saw the documentary on Leon Theremin (the inventor of the theremin) in 1999. After this, I was determined to find one and learn how to play! Thanks to the internet (and Bob Moog), I was able to find a theremin with a good range and enough sensitivity to play melodies. I taught myself to play by listening to and playing along to recordings of Beethoven and Zhou Xuan."

antiMusic: How does it make you feel to have so many dedicated fans?

TOP: It's a tremendous privilege to have people pay attention to what we're doing � we make music primarily because it makes us really happy, and to have that also make other folks happy sets up this feedback loop of awesomeness that propels things onwards and upwards. It's constantly shocking to me that anybody even knows who we are, but I'm extremely grateful for the amazing support we receive and the opportunity to play for people in so many different places!

antiMusic: What musicians have you been listening to lately? Any guilty pleasures?

TOP: Besides the musicians in #7 I've been listening to Sun Ra, Broadcast, Mouse on Mars, the Jesus Lizard and Aesop Rock. As far as guilty pleasures I would normally say rap radio, but it's been pretty weak lately�so all my current pleasures are guilt-free.

antiMusic: What are you favorite past times?

TOP: My favorite past times include the 1930s and the late Renaissance.

antiMusic: Any final thoughts?

TOP: "Fowler's Modern English Usage states that 'the only acceptable plural in English is octopuses,' and that octopi is misconceived and octopodes pedantic."