Sunday 4 January 2009

Late of the Pier - Fantasy Black Channel


It must be terrible being so darn creative. Just when you think it’s probably best to move back into a verse there’s Brian Eno dressed in a latex Devil's outfit perched on your shoulder whispering in your ear to double the tempo and go in for a flute solo.

Such is the dilemma on Late of the Pier’s debut album, Fantasy Black Channel. The thirteen songs here are as experimental and schizophrenic as you are likely to find yet it occasionally sounds like someone tripping over their own multi-coloured high-tops.

The album introduces itself with Hot Tent Blues, just over a minute of bloated synth lines which manages to sound like both a beginning and an end. It could well be pumped gloriously from the blood encrusted p.a. systems the day after The Revolution as it could be the soundtrack to the last days of Rome (2059 A.D.).

And then the odyssey begins. For that’s was this album is – an odyssey. We are taken through a universe where the clouds are matt grey and dangerously low whilst the horizon is an explosion of Technicolor; a world where the nihilism is crisp, occasionally sprawling and lasts about three-and-a-half minutes.

The highlights? Space and the woods is a futurist fantasy driven by thunderous, hi-energy synths whilst VW is an impressive nomadic electro journey sans lyrics; single Heartbeat is good value too with a most gloriously dizzying chorus.

A special mention has to go to the song Whitesnake. Whilst the notion of pomposity is intrinsic to the band it seems that when they try too hard it becomes plain embarrassing. Mining the quirkiness which made Sparks such an irritating band the song is avoidable at best but, if you’re like me and enjoy listening to the occasional song for it’s comedic crapness, then be my guest.

The kitchen sink mentality and lofty ambitions of the band can only be admired and provides an album which is never dull, yet this can be problematic in its own right. They probably won’t release a second album for a good few years because all of their ideas have been thrown into this long-player. It’s about pacing yourself and that would imply having one eye on the future – a place I thought the band couldn’t remove their gaze from...

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