Stone Cold Harmony In The Fridge

With limitless exuberant energy, Fridge burst out of the trap to remind us what we have been missing from Adem Ilhan, Kieran Hebden and Sam Jeffers on their latest album, The Sun. A musical expansivity, the creativity to renegotiate the sonic spectrum and the vitality of spirit to produce sounds that make us listen in unexpected ways are some of my key reference points to their latest album. The term post-rock is now a weary one, worn threadbare over the years as musicians have sought to mangle and distort those sacred musical patterns that we are familiar and safe with. Bark Psychosis were the band that first did it for me, and there are many other mavericks who push the possibilities into the unfamiliar. Fridge are a band I would always cite as inhabiting this space and The Sun is a beautiful example of this. From the first crack of driving percussion from Sam Jeffers, they set the tone for the rest of the album. Its not a punk album, but it has the vibey edge and snarl of a garage band. This exuberance seeps out of The Sun, regardless of the spinning tempo. The art and the process are of great importance to Fridge. The three members have all been hard at work on their own musical projects, and they mix and match instruments at will. An instrument that is also pushed to the fore is the studio itself. Sounds and loops flicker in and out of the mix, as if they are caught in a swirling eddy that churns and spins the tones and resonance into new forms for aural interpretation. It would be unwise to read into this a total unfamiliarity of form. The one thing that becomes crystal clear is the chiming, sparkling clean harmonies at play on this album. Yeah, it has tunes.

Beautiful harmonies take shape in the same way a snake sheds its skin(s) in time to the seasons natural rythmn, it all takes place under The Sun..........

Did you think it was all awkward sounds, stuttering and crawling at you like a manic ecstasy casualty, brain fried, nodding out to the tin foiled morning come down ?

Well, you thought wrong buddy !

Thanks Adem for the mailout. More Fridge info here.
The Sun is out now on the Text label. Available in the US on Temporary Residence and Domino in Europe.

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