Dave Einmo, guitarist for Seattle's own Sushirobo, breaks away from that band to make his first official solo album, going by the moniker Head Like A Kite. Random Portraits of the Home Movie is aptly titled, considering the inspiration for this album is exactly that. Einmo has used Super 8 home movies taken from the 70's when he was a kid, and uses them here as an inspiration to make sort of a soundtrack to them in their honor. What has transpired here on this freshman album blows away anything Sushirobo have done thus far, and may be the debut record to beat for 2006.

What makes Random Portraits so special is that Einmo and producer Brian Deck (Modest Mouse, Secret Machines, Iron & Wine) throw everything but the kitchen sink in musically, and all of it sticks to the preverbial wall just fine. In all honesty, this may be the best album Deck has ever been behind. "Words of a Friend" starts out the album with bass heavy guitars and pulsating drum tracks laid down by David Weeks of Kinski. Half of the album is just instumental work an none is finer than "Your Butt Crack Smile" which sounds like it could come from any Lo Fidelity Allstars or Notwist album until about the two minute mark, then it switches up its sound to sound like guitar style New Order. Of the vocal oriented tracks, the best here are "A Dime and a Cigarette" which sounds like prime Failure material, and "Injecting 10ccs of Temptation" which recalls Primal Scream's more electronic heavy era. Asya of Smoosh is also kind enough to lend her lead vocals to the fantastic "Noisy at the Circus".

With Random Portraits of the Home Movie, Einmo and Deck have created an eclectic and colorful palate throughout, and I'll I can hope for is that this isn't just a one time deal offshoot band, because Head Like A Kite has shown that their twice as interesting as Einmo's full time band.