Released on small management label Stuck Up Music, the eight track mini album is a portent of potentially grand things to come.
Opener 'Monkey' sets the scene; edgy, sparse riffing with doomy male/female vocals uttering the lines "monkey see, monkey do / archaeology will catch up with you". Not sure what it means, but by the time it explodes into Siamese Dream guitar overload, it wins you over without a second thought. Debut single 'Hollywood Bowl' sounds like a vampish Joan Jett taking on a spooked QOTSA by way of the Monster Mash. While this may sound like a dreadful concoction (or merely analogy), it goes someway to fail to pin down the eerie qualities that make 'AOK' the debut mini album that it is.
Throughout, bassist Emma Richardson's vocals are a sweet counterpoint to Russell Marsden's daggered croon, and it's this point-counterpoint that drags you seedily throughout FNY's world. Typical of this is 'Scandinavia'; one of the three tracks that made up the band's single debut and all appear on 'AOK' it's the mightiest of the eight tracks here, with a keening Josh Homme-esque guitar opening and Richardson belting out her love of cold climbs, before it subsides to a snowflake-delicate Delgados-esque ending.
Central to the record is a 50's B Movie quality that keeps thing walking the line between dark and light perfectly. Think Raveonettes but without the lapse in song quality control that makes their records sound twice too long, despite generally being half the size of others. Through the darkness appear beautiful rays of melody and sweet, sweet harmonies. Perfect example being 'AOK' which mixes icy openings with a driving bubblegum centre complete with seductive "whoo-ooos".
The appeal of the record and the band is hard to define; perhaps the gang mentality
the record exudes, possibly the sense of a band living in their own contrived
world set adrift from anything else. Regardless, it's a record that draws you
in in such a way that you can't let go, and that's something indeed. Highly
recommended, as they say in the Guardian singles review section.
Fleeing New York - AOK
Re: Fleeing New York - AOK
Re: Fleeing New York - AOK
Fleeing New York - AOK
Fleeing New York - AOK
Re: Fleeing New York - AOK
Never rated them that highly.
They changed their name for a while, too, after that whole 9/11 thing.
Then changed it back.
SO ROCK N ROLL.
Bah.
DJ Hammy is the shit.
Re: Fleeing New York - AOK
Re: Fleeing New York - AOK
Re: Fleeing New York - AOK
Fleeing New York - AOK
Fleeing New York - AOK
Good to see these guys on the way up - seen them once at the Heads and they were good. Can only agree about the Dead! as well - could Southampton finally be getting a sliver of credibility?
Fleeing New York - AOK
Re: Fleeing New York - AOK
Re: Fleeing New York - AOK
Fleeing New York - AOK
I think it's ace.
The end.
Re: Fleeing New York - AOK
O