I have no information about this album other than it is likely to be Fighting Kites last (at least for the foreseeable future). It follows fairly closely the recent Broken Shoulder split they released (Broken Shoulder being one half of FK) which you can find a review of on the site and an airing of on the podcast. That’s the foreplay. Let’s making fuck.
It has taken me three good in-depth listens to get my head round this sprawling album and I’m still not sure I have a proper handle on it. Math-y rock, cheap Casio keyboards, pastoral acoustic guitar, noisy freak outs and beatific Tortoise like post rock all meet together (sometimes in the same song) to create an album that is rewardingly labyrinthine (or labrinythianly rewarding). I just wanted to make up the word “labryinthianly” to see it written down.
The songs largely fade into each other so the album is sort of presented in one large chunk which is quite imposing when there is so much going on. The plus side of this, of course, is that you are still noticing things and discovering little nooks and crannies even after initial listens, which is always a pleasure. Who wants albums that you are intimate with after a single listen ?
So, are there any negatives ? Well, Tortoise might say so as they are the band most closely resembled but this is more like a road Tortoise might have gone down than a straight rip off. And Tortoise are a fucking great band so if people are taking inspiration why not take it from someone worthy of being inspired by ? It is a shame that Fighting Kites wont live to see their potential but this a lovely, sunshine-y and intelligent epitaph.
Kim Monaghan
