Late Of The Pier - Fantasy Black Channel (Album)

I often read lines such as 'this is the album of the year' or 'this will be on my end of year top ten albums list' or the even more assuming 'this will probably be on a lot of other people's end of year lists'. I can't say until the end of the year whether any of these statements will be true for Late Of The Pier's debut but i wouldn't be surprised. It's a brilliant album and the key to it's brilliance is the fact that it's not always brilliant, does that make sense? Allow me to elaborate.

It's a wonky, electro pop album. Electro because of the synths, bass and drums, pop because of the extrememly catchy hooks and sing along choruses and wonky because no song uses the same theme for more than a minute or so. Where most bands would be happy with one hook per song, Late Of The Pier have three better ones and they're fixed together with offcuts of string, bits of chewing gum and the gaffer tape that was holding down their set list last night. Take pretty much any song on the album, it starts with an indie meets bubblegum pop hook which lasts just long enough for you to think 'i really like this song' to which LOTP seem to take offence and sling in a thirty second cock-rock guitar thrashing that sounds so cheesey you can't do anything but grin. Then, back to a more melodic (but completely different) tune which may see you to the end of the song but more likely only as far as their ADD attention span will take you before plunging into another barrage of wailing voices squelching synths and squealing guitars. There's no doubting that 'Fantasy Black Channel' is bonkers but it's bonkers in all the right places.

Anybody with their ear to the ground will have probably heard 3 or 4 of the tracks from this album already but don't be deterred as ALL the other songs are of equal caliber, picking one to have at the top of the post was tricky as i don't think i have a favourite, i've already posted 'Focker' and i wanted to steer away from the singles so i opted for 'Mad Dogs and Englishmen'.

If you're reading this post and thinking that my description is a bit wacky and doesn't really describe why i like it then the gist of my review has conveyed the album far better than my content. The basics are: It's excellent, buy it, listen to it and pencil it onto your end of year list (we've all got them).

Late Of The Pier - Mad Dogs And Englishmen

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