Fugo - Aie
It was 8am one weekday morning when the brown envelope was pushed through my door. As I lay listening to the cat maniacally tumble down the stairs to attack the post, I shortly followed, stumbling like a half asleep zombie. I went to the door, retrieved the envelope, complete with cat jaws attached, and ventured over to my dining room table. As I opened the package and pulled out the c.d. from inside, I placed it on the table with a blank expression. Why I hear you ask? Well, I will tell you. My expression was blank because that’s exactly what this album appeared to be. Blank. As an unpainted canvas. Blank as a brand new I-pod. Blank as Anthony from this year's Big Brother; you get the picture.
Firstly, there was no press release enclosed, which makes reviewing an unknown band excruciatingly difficult, as I knew absolutely nothing about them. The album cover itself appears to be blank; (a white background is not imaginative) apart from in the corner where someone appears to have had a nosebleed or a messy jam sandwich. It gets worse when I flip over the album to reveal the track listing, which I discover is all letters. Now I am sure there is supposed to be some deep, arty, meaningful explanation for all this, but I just think that it is damn lazy. I let out a small groan when I saw that the record has been released through Engineer records as the last album I had to review by them was abysmal. So far, it's not looking too great. Even the inlay of the album has blurred indeterminable photographs of the band members; we couldn't have them giving anything away there.
From what little information I could gather about them from the Internet, I was led to the conclusion that the band themselves are from Switzerland. However as this was all the information I could muster the best I can offer you in the way of a review is to simply listen to the album and tell you what I thought.
The album kicks off on track two, or "R" as it is named. This was in my opinion the best track, an interesting mix of French vocals in a hip-hop format with a more metal chorus. Interweaved with melodic guitars, there is something distinguishable about using the French language, it seems to roll off the tongue more easily making the flow of spoken word/rap sound better. So I was suitably impressed with this track, although I was later to discover the rest of the album is in English. It irritates me when foreign bands (often through no fault of their own) have to sing in English to appeal to a wider market. Take a band like Rammstein for example. When they perform in German it works, the aggressiveness of the language suits the harsh industrial style music. When they perform in English, it's hysterical. When Fugo perform in English, i.e. for the rest of the album they sound bland and forgettable, nothing stands out. The whole feel of the album is quite experimental, there appears to be no structure throughout each song, and there is even use of a xylophone on track B, (that's 9 to everyone else).
I think this album would be more appealing with a little more rhythm and structure, but maybe I am wrong. Then, just when you thought it was over the hidden end track reveals to be some sort of pop punk Sum 41 sound a like. Maybe this album grows on you after a few listens, but unfortunately, I do not have the time or the patience.
Fugo- Aie is available now through Engineer Records.