A sabbatical is the most effective remedy for the uncertain of
souls in need of a sense of direction, or perhaps necessitate a
return of focus.
In the four years since their last album, Wet From Birth, The Faint
have used this period productively to take stock.
Wet From Birth found
them arguably at their peak a decade into their lifetime; but their level
in terms of sales and shows had remained fairly static.
It happens to the best of us.
The end result was to renovate a building, build a studio, produce
their own album, part company with Saddle Creek and set up their own
label, blank.wav, where their fifth record Fasciinatiion (sic) was recently
released in the USA (Europe has to wait until October).
The road test
for Fasciinatiion has taken them across North America for much of
August, leading up to this bout of intimate club shows in Europe.
Cargo is heaving and humid on a balmy Friday evening. The deep
rolling throb of Agenda Suicide as an opener sends already high spirits
soaring. Todd Fink is revelling in the mood too, lifting his aviator
goggles between songs to see through the condensation which endlessly
builds up in them. The white threads simply compliment the
extravagance of his presence.
To his left, keyboardist and chief producer of the album Jacob
Thiele is giving a running lesson in how to jerk your upper torso
asymmetrically while mashing at a synth in an irrepressibly edgy
fluid motion. The strobey, arthouse video show is silhouetted by
guitarist Dapose and bassist Joel Petersen wrestling with their
guitars either side of the stage.
The spectacle is as frenetic as you're likely to see - barely 10
minutes into the show, clothes are damp and sticking to skin.
You're living, breathing and feeling The Faint as its
meant to be.
Fasciinatiion is fairly easy to warm to - the trend for the album
revolves around solid melody whisked with all manner of bleeps, blurps
and crunches. The electro stomp of Geeks Were Right and the sleazy Get
Seduced stand out most. Fink's psychedelic vocals over Fulcrum and
Lever's hip-hop styled beats signal the more experimental nature of
the record too.
It's left to Desperate Guys and closer Glass Danse World
to mercilessly lob a grenade of trashy electroclash into the middle of
the room. The Faint are back, and boy have we missed them.
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