Tuesday 27 May 2008

Late Of The Pier - Space And The Woods (Single)





I've written before that Late Of The Pier are worthy of a post of their own so here it is (and they'll probably demand another when their album finally comes out). 'Space and the Woods' is a re-release of their first single and sounds like it was heavily inspired by Gary Numan, it's a very good track but it's also very difficult to appreciate when it's on the wrong side of the record. I say 'wrong' because Focker is on the other side and it's oh-so right, it seems to contain the same heavy synths and guitar riffs of 'Space and the Woods' but just employs them differently, i don't think i can accurately explain how genius this track is. I've never really understood 'stadium rock', i grew up amongst a group of friends who were into Metallica, Guns 'n' Roses and Queen but i failed to understand the fun in seeing a band at a huge arena where you need binoculars to see what's happening on stage. 'Focker' changes all of that, i don't even know what Sam Eastgate looks like but i can already imagine him rocking out atop a massive stack of speakers on a huge stage in front of thousands of people (me included) screaming the vocals and moshing their necks off. If you manage to survive the first two and a half minutes without violently nodding your head or playing air guitar then the last 30 seconds will get you and that's a promise. Sometimes (or in my case frequently) other people just say things better than i could so in the words of my housemate 'It's the first song in ages i've had to listen to twice in a row'.

It's produced by Erol Alkan which may explain some of the brilliance but certainly not all of it. The other tracks on the single that unfortunately pale in comparison are a Switch remix which is unusually electro for him and a mysterious Rolmops (i can't find any info on him/her) remix that just appears to be 'Focker' in reverse - weird. It's available on CD, 7" and 12" but the bigger you buy it, the bigger you get the lovely mock gold leaf artwork.

Late Of The Pier - Focker

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Have you seen the video for this? They play until both their instruments and apparently their faces melt, then for the last 30 seconds the ultimate music robot emerges from a crack in the wall and beats them to death with its swirly drumsticks

Battery Powered said...

Late Of The Pier - Focker (video)

I hadn't seen that!

Apparently the reason bands don't normally make a video for their B-side is because there isn't any budget left.