A – FÄHM (Hiss and Crackle Records)
The Blues never goes out of style, it just gets bent out of shape. This quintet from Wallsend, a suburb of Australia steel city Newcastle, applies its own stylistic panel beating and the result is a satisfyingly swampy pastiche.
Assembling members from local bands Howlin’ Rats, The Not Nots, The Outliers and Paper Thin, FÄHM (pronounced “Fam”), mixes up the medicine in some weird and wonderful ways. The bio cites influences like feedtime, Scientists, X and Beasts of Bourbon. The latter is obvious but for mine it’s the “Safe As Milk” era Captain Beefheart whose shadow looms largest.
Vocalist Ryan McIllwain doesn’t have the Captain’s extraordinary range but he does pretty well with what he has. Drummer Anthony Dean applies drive and restraint in all the right places and Craig Louey’s violin adds an exotic textural touch.
You don’t get to sample the 11 songs on Bandcamp (there’s a CD option but this is primarily a vinyl release) so you’ll have to trust us on this one, but “A” is an inventive swamp blues effort, the likes of which you won’t hear often these days without doing a lot of digging.
The songs are solid and ther production basic and uncluttered. “Demented Soul Blues” is a debt collectors’ lament that sounds like a Beasts outtake from “Black Milk”. “Ruby” comes across like Captain Beefheart colliding with Bob Dylan’s “Desire” band while swilling cheap port.
The chicken scratch ‘n’ stab guitar of “Fade Into The Night” yields to an bluesy groove that peaks in a dizzying jam. Can’t help feeling that this one could have benefitted from an external producer’s input but it’s not a gamebreaker. Andrew Watt doesn’t work cheap.
“Tobias’ Torment” is a psychedelic instrumental trip where Louey and co-guitarist Mitch Easton indulge themselves with the interplay and it closes out the record nicely.
1/4
