The Brooklyn based sextet Cloud Becomes Your Hand, led by multi-instrumentalist and composer Stephe (pronounced 'Steve') Cooper, took their name from a stage direction from a "theatrical stage experiment" performance project devised by Cooper and MIDI-triggered MalletKat percussionist Sam Sowyrda. Theatrical is also a good description of their music, which spans Canterbury psych and the angular agitation of Oingo Boingo and early Devo. However, the group’s Bandcamp page prefers such labels as "avant prog bumping insect rock ’n’ roll", "glowing dino" and "snail lick", which is probably the lite version of licking hallucinogenic toads.

After a few home recordings in the early 2010s, they signed to Northern Spy, the label that is also home to Baltimore's equally chaotic Horse Lords, and Rest In Fleas is their second full-length release for the label, following 2014's Rocks Or Cakes. While they may look like deranged children's television presenters-escapees from Pee-Wee's Playhouse, perhaps – and their surreal animated videos could easily pass for interstitial segments on that show, the Cloud Becomes Your Hand project blends psychedelic whimsy with grown-up seriousness and melancholy, especially on the album’s closing ballad "Made Of Teak".

Rest In Fleas is released by Northern Spy on 27 May. Cloud Becomes Your Hand are touring North America from 20 April–25 July.