Fall Electric
Faithless Friend
Hidden Shoal Recordings

Perth-based quartet Fall Electric have launched their single "Faithless Friend", off their fresh debut album Measure And Step (out now). Acoustic based rock with punch and calmness. Hand in hand. Or hand in glove.

"Faithless Friend" is a stomping piece, a semi-angry and intense song with acoustic string-plucking, including cello. Accurately paranoid and angst-filled, ending with a quick bow to Nirvana ("Something In The Way"). Nice. Imagine Arcade Fire merged with Wire.

Its 'flipside' (eh, it's a downloaded single... well, a bonus track), "Sir Sun Shines Strong", is all toned down acoustic and of a more introvert nature. Here's where Dirty Three comes to mind (Dirty Three doing a cover of Oldham/Billy, maybe). The cello part towards the end is brilliant, and is quite electric. Spellbinding, almost terrifying. These two tracks leaves me very excited to check out their album. The description is indeed fitting: "This is acoustic folk noir for wide-open spaces."

Measure And Step was recorded with Casey Rice, who has worked with Dirty Three, Tortoise and Stereolab. Other reference names dropped are: Dirty Three, Will Oldham, Neil Young, Mum, Mice Parade, Do Make Say Think and Tom Waits. Giving a reference cross-point of acoustic meets carefully electrified rock.

Copyright © 2008 Håvard Oppøyen