No Energy

Perhaps I don't like this one quite as much as Klunk one, but I played it one Sunday morning in bed, and Nicola actaully said (although she will deny this) at the time that she "quite liked that one" except for "the noisy bit in the middle". She has a real problem with noisy bits in the middle, I can see why, when you're just drifting off, and then it's all static-y noise and clicking and crunching. But maybe they're put in there to stop you falling into sleep. Some critics would say that music that any music that sends you to sleep must be boring and crap, but I say that is rubbish, because only real lovely music is good enough to drift off with, and this CD is a slow building jazzy weirdo electronic thing, with which FFR have been making quite a name for themselves I believe - non-comittal "it's ok" reviews in The Wire, eh? What next - a panning in NME? (guaranteed to ensure extreme underground credibility). Sunny Days Out, 27 Mount Pleasant, Reading, RG1 2TF Issue #4, dec 2000/jan 2001

The first track on this disc is 'termite strings' consisting of subtle electronica, the title is quite apt as the sounds are reminiscent of both strings & strange insects, not dissimilar to Graeme Revell's 'the insect musicians'. These subtle electronics can become rather atonal due to the effects being utilised, I'm sure I heard a ring modulator in there somewhere. On 'crush' we get a fine conglomeration of atonal electronics, a nice bubbly spacey synth sound & percussion. On later tracks we get further disparate sounds: sax, cheesy voices, slowed down drum patterns but the gamut of this release is the electronics with post effects ranging from soft & quiet to the occasional noise. Overall a thoroughly good listen.

Review from Cheeses International, August 2001 (mail order service and newsletter - focuses mainly on hard/abstract electronics and experimental musics) 15 Liverpool Road, Islington, London, N1 0RW steve.cheeses@btinternet.com