Two veterans of West Philadelphia’s late, lamented “Softbatch” scene (Squi!, Son Bees, King of Prussia, Oskama Bin Skaden), half-brothers Mr. Nathaniel Cops (keys) and Finger Julius Mountain (drums) were first united by a desire to get the fuck out of Man Man after  simultaneously discovering (to their great horror) that they’d been playing with them for years.  Whales and Cops began rehearsals at once, cleaving to a vigorous, manly regimen of certain foods and exercises and, significantly, a staunch refusal to hide the light of their Modern music under a bushel of implausible pseudonyms and fake, stupid band names.  With the addition of fancy, German-looking multi-instrumentalist Ötzi Bögman and usually one other human, Whales and Cops stand poised at the very brink of the Culture itself, beckoning to you.

Whalesand Cops debut Great Bouncing Icebergs EP was recorded at dawn in an abandoned municipal storage facility through special, special microphones; each musician placed at or near the locus of a very red triangle.  The songs recount the brother’s entanglement in a sugary web of digital dismemberment, expert panhandling, beard sex and berserk destruction.  Legendary grunge producer Butch Vig was never contacted or mentioned once. “Pop doesn’t get much more puzzling than on Great Bouncing Icebergs, the long-awaited album by the madcap Philly troupe Whales and Cops. It’s packed with intimate  shivers and hulking revelations and everything in between, beeping and blurring while virtuosic players with fake names wrangle vivid new life from their instruments.