Late of the Pier – Fantasy Black Channel
If you’re a music fan looking for a taste of something different, unique and thrilling, Late of the Pier’s ‘Fantasy Black Channel’ is a fantastic purchase, packed with twelve original and exciting tracks. The four-piece band from Castle Donnington have taken music to a new level, bringing us an album full of fast paced energetic rave sounds and futuristic synths behind Samuel Eastgate’s versatile vocals throughout. The studio album its self is wonderfully crafted, the opening track ‘Hot Tent Blues’ merging into a fast paced, choppy ‘Broken’, as well as ‘Mad Dogs and Englishmen’ coming to an anticlimax before becoming the opening of ‘Bathroom Gurgle’.
The lyrics throughout the album at times seem almost schizophrenic, the lyric structure in many songs incomprehensible due to the broken syntax and high pitched screaming of Eastgate’s vocals. ‘Bathroom Gurgle’, the closing song of the album is stated as ‘unknown’ when viewing the song lyrics on the Late of the Pier official site, which summarises much of the lyrics throughout the album. The lyrics of which are comprehendible seem intoxicated and revolving escapism and light hearted ‘easy-life’ “lately i've been thinking this whole world seems too hard and i'd be better off to undo everything” from ‘Random Firl’ as well as the repetition of “easy life, is it an easy life” throughout ‘The Enemy are the Future’. In tracks such as ‘V W’ lyrics are completely put aside so the audience can marvel over the experimental synth sounds throughout the song.
Late of the Pier have created a highly unique exciting new sound, maybe not appealing to everyone – but nevertheless have found a gap in the market giving them high chances of progression. If you enjoy the categorised ‘new rave’ music, Klaxons or similar sounds then this album is certainly for you. ‘Fantasy Black Channel’ contains great sounds, a great vocalist and one ‘must buy’ album.
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Hear hear. LOTP's album is a blinder.
ReplyDeleteIt seems these guys have come out of nowhere considering I've had trouble finding some informative reading material about the group. Their website isn’t that great. I did, however, see Erol Alkan produced the album, supposedly a notable DJ out of London. I suppose that has to be some kind of representation for promise.
ReplyDeleteExploring other reviews, I've seen many comparisons to Gary Numan and Frank Zappa, but I can neither agree nor disagree since I've never listened to either of those two much. Fantasy Black Channel is very quirky, poppy, electronic, and full of synth. Simply put, it's party music. Immediately there are similarities to Franz Ferdinand and The Killers, two groups who've successfully hit the pop scene. I'm not sure Late of the Pier will reach that status, though. There seems to be too many "been done before" aspects.
Ever since Death From Above 1979 disbanded, I've been searching high and low for a band able enough to replicate You're A Woman, I'm A Machine. No, Late of the Pier can't do that, but a few of their songs are fairly akin - "Space & The Woods" and "Focker." The beats and guitar (or bass, whatever it is) are awesome. Going back to the producer, Erol Alkan, it may be worth knowing in the past he remixed music from both Death From Above 1979 and Franz Ferdinand. It's just an interesting tidbit. Also, at times I think of David Bowie and subsequently Flight of the Conchords mocking him.
Fantasy Black Channel isn't that bad despite all the rehashing, even if the flow of the album is all over the place. Amidst the rocking and dancing there's stuff that could be music in an NES game ("Random Firl," have a listen and tell me otherwise). All things considered, this debut is decent.
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