LATE OF THE PIER
Fantasy Black Channel
(EMI) A+

There’s two ways you can take what’s on offer from the bright, bold, schizophrenic yet deliciously mastered debut from English four-piece Late Of The Pier. You can either take it on board as a bit of a joke and blind yourself to the merits it so obviously lays on the music listening table, or you can tune yourself in as finely as possible into the minds of the band by setting off on a bizarre journey through the past, present and future of music. If you’re willing to surrender, absolute pleasure is the product they’re placing on that listening table, pleasure which is well worth your hard earned dollars and, more importantly, your attention.

Fantasy Black Channel is a fine example of a band working as one with their producer. Luckily for all involved, that producer is none other than all-round legend Erol Alkan, whose services to music – in particular the field of dance – have propelled him from being a highly respected DJ to somewhat of a pop cultural icon. And if you ever needed cold-hard-proof of his genius or an explanation as to why he has achieved such a status, then this record is about as firm an answer as you’re going to get.

Opener Hot Tent Blues is an instrumental piece which comes complete with an epic guitar riff likely to have made the late and great Frank Zappa proud, before lunging itself into the spastic-synths of Broken, a spacey, tweaky affair bearing some strong resemblance to the work of Split Enz. The track, quite cleverly, comes to a crashing halt by shoehorning the sounds of several songs skipping between each other, giving the impression that the CD player (ask your parents) is, in fact, broken. Do you see?!

Space And The Woods continues to borrow tiny elements from Split Enz but, this time, crashing them into the pop sensibilities of Devo, combining the retrophonic synths of yesteryear with the sounds and bleeps of today. The Bears Are Coming begins with an African backyard-bassline (complete with the sounds of a spoon-to-teacup for percussion) which launches itself into a bizarre, yet primally tribal musical event. It then bursts through your ears with what is essentially the musical equivalent of an orgasm in its last 25 Atari-loving seconds. Random Firl is almost like a strange children’s lullaby that just so happens to be addicted to crack, whilst Heartbeat borrows an element of the Foreigner classic Cold As Ice for its intro, but just enough to prevent you from running for the hills shouting “CHEESE ALERT.” “It’s just a line! It’s just a line!” shout the lyrics come chorus time, which is something that can be enjoyed regardless of how your innocence reads it.

Whitesnake is their rockiest romp that comes complete with a bonkers Queen-meets-ZZ Top middle 8, before popping itself into the proverbial TARDIS with Doctor Who and Billie Piper (well, not literally Billie Piper, but wouldn’t that have been nice?) for a trip into time and space. VW is a poignant, epic (and completely instrumental) Transylvanian styled nu-rave monster, with its haunting chords ripped right out of a 1930’s horror flick. Its placing on the album is clever; it does for this album what Van She’s instrumental Temps Mort did on their debut effort; drawing a finely tuned line between the sounds presented on the first half of the record to the second. And boy; does this album go out with a bang.

Focker is the absolute highlight on the long player, a lyrically stabbing hallmark with a seriously desperate urgency in its delivery of the highly relatable line of “What have I said? What have I done to you? I wanna be your friend! I wanna be your friend!” It’s also the bands strongest showcasing of their true nu-rave elements; sending them off to play in the demonic final 20 seconds. Think Crystal Castles doing Led Zeppelin. Mad Dogs & Enthusiasm and The Enemy Are The Future are about as close to The Clash as things can get, with a middle 8 that would make the boys down at DFA records blush with excitement. It all blissfully comes to an end with Bathroom Gurgle, complete with the joytastic line “Put your hands on your waistline, and move your body to the bassline.”

It’s evident after one listen to Fantasy Black Channel that Rock and Roll, New wave, 80’s pop, 90’s techno, Gary Numan, Freddie Mercury, Frank Zappa, Jim Morrison, Human League and even – would you believe – The Skyhooks, have more than likely played an integral part in the relationships the band (and producer) have formed individually with music as an entity. There is definitely a firm foot stomping its ground in the past here. But it’s also quite clear that Late Of The Pier are a band with their remains firmly planted into the now; their combination of everything old with today’s technology and musical advancements is just so alarmingly exciting. As long as Late Of The Pier continue to tap into the history books by finding new ways of doing so, there’s a solid future in store for a band as innovative and eager as this.