The “party band of the apocalypse” has finally finished their epic attack on Guns N’ Roses’ 1988 LP Appetite for Destruction. Ruby Isle, known best for dance floor versions of Animal Collective, Decemberists and Bon Iver has finally dropped the appropriately titled Appetite for Destruction, a cover-to-cover electronic homage to the 20th best rock record of the 1980s (seriously Rolling Stone, only 20th?). And they will probably get sued by Axl, but how cool would that be!

What started as a straightforward electronic adaptation of GNR’s debut slowly evolved into a spaced-out experiment incorporating both live and electronic instrumentation. Ruby Isle vocalist Mark Mallman commented, “In the beginning of recording everything just seemed too obvious. We decided to go into the studio and bring in musicians with diverse musical backgrounds to make this thing a little more interesting.” The extended sound palette includes a jazz quartet, French female vocals, courtesy of Nicole Godiva of Waxx Maxx, live strings and a guest appearance from Har Mar Superstar on “Sweet Child O’ Mine.”

Even though the electropop trio brought in more diverse musicians and instrumentation; according to drummer Aaron Lemay, the result is still “pretty fucking dancey”. In keeping with their notoriously high energy and sometimes dangerous live shows, the final product of the GNR inspired opus is both an earnest tribute to the original and a complete mockery of everything it stands for… basically a total contradiction. Microsamples from the original material are bent into 80s sounding synth patches that were pitched and mangled to produce the keyboard sounds used for most of the record. Drums were ripped, bent and forced into 808-like compliance.

The first video for the notorious “Mr. Brownstone” features DOZER, the Doggy Bounce Dog, from Flight of the Conchords. Unfortunately the band met DOZER too late for him to appear on the record, but plans to incorporate his unique abilities into the next record are already being discussed. When asked what the future holds for Ruby Isle, chief financial officer and vocoder operator Dan Geller answered simply: “Journey meets Ace of Base”.