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| Field Music, who already have a couple of utterly conflicting reviews from an ever-fickle TinyVoices under their collective belts, come touted as a "North-East supergroup", a description which instilled in this writer an alarming vision of a Geordie Yes (it could be called "Aye, Man"! Ha ha ha! Brilliant!). Fortunately, it turns out that the substance behind this outlandish claim boils down to having a drummer who used to be in the Futureheads, and another drummer (that’s what it says here) drafted in from Maximo Park. Quite frankly, if that isn’t a supergroup, I’d like to know what is. |
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Anyway, to business. Much like Clor, whom we were ranting on about a couple of weeks ago, Field Music manage to pull off the trick of being simultaneously leftfield and yet accessible. Their basic schtick is appropriating motifs of traditional pop songcraftery – you know, strings, harmonies, catchy choruses – but approaching it from a spiky, post-punk kind of a direction.
The resulting record is, perhaps surprisingly given this slightly avant-garde take on things, a fairly understated affair: there isn’t really anything a music industry crap-weasel might describe as an "obvious single", and the first hearing washed over us a bit. However, after a couple of listens we found ourselves won over by the intricate, varied songs, and the elated nature of the whole enterprise: it’s a bit like Stereolab, if Stereolab bought some proper instruments, or perhaps it’s nothing like that at all. Either way, in a couple of places during the 12 songs, Field Music loses its way rather, and crosses the line into navel-gazing territory (‘Seventeen’ and ‘Got To Get The Nerve’ in particular had us nodding off); on the whole, though, it’s a satisfying debut. (And incidentally, can anybody explain to us why 90 per cent of the CDs we are sent to review are "debuts"? Are today’s bands all throwing in the towel after their first album, or is it just that they decide they’re too big for the likes of us once they’ve sold three copies of their bloody record? Or – much more likely – is some kind of Curse Of Tinyvoices to blame, and would any Channel Five commissioning editors reading like to explore this thesis over a pointless two-hour documentary? If so, we’d like to hear from you: please get in touch via the usual address). |
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| Mat Beal - 7/10 |
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