MICE PARADE What It Means To Be Left-Handed (2010 UK 12-track CD album - 'What It Means To Be Left-Handed' is the stunning new full-length from Mice Parade. Coloured by splashes of West African Highlife, Flamenco, Brazillian Jazz, even 80's indie-rock, the album is knowingly un-hip and as distinctive and idiosyncratic as the band's previous records. It is a giddy-paced, flickering, enveloping, soaring and respectful nod to the musical influences that lend themselves to the band's sound, yet it is never derivative. The album opens with the gorgeous, frolicking 'Kupanda', performed by Pierce alongside Somi and kora player Abdou. The track is one of a set of Highlife-influenced pieces that lie around songs that stray more overtly from the trodden Mice Parade path: the polar extremes found on 'What It Means To Be Left-Handed' include lush, sophisticated pseudo-electronica ['Tokyo Late Night'], a dizzyingly blissful Tom Brosseau cover ['Mary Anne'] and drifting miniatures ['Pond', 'Recover'], yet all somehow fit effortlessly within the Mice Parade persona. The album may consist of a collection of individual assets, but its identity is held together by extraordinary musicianship, by its faithful and enthusiastic acknowledgment of a 'music existing for music's sake' philosophy, and by its rich, home-produced sonics).