Labels: ape must not kill ape – X Kiki X
Review by: Oli Saunders
Ferguson were a band from Switzerland that existed from 1994 to 1996. They played screamy emo, recording four tracks shortly before breaking up. It’s taken over a decade for them to actually get released but here they are at last on this one sided 12”. It came out at the end of 2008 but I’ve only recently managed to get a copy, it’s limited to 300.
The result is pretty great in my opinion. It’s got a nice live feel, which is largely because it was recorded in a garage. I think I saw a comparison between them and Closure somewhere, first of all I would have disagreed with this but after listening to all the songss I can definitely see some similarities. The vocals are less harsh here and the guitar sound is a fair bit different but it’s a decent point of reference. More obvious comparisons can be drawn with other mid 90s European bands such as Age and Abyss, both from Germany. These are the only two I can namedrop at the moment as my knowledge of European bands in this era is pretty minimal.
The tracks are all good in my opinion, a stand out song is the second track ‘In Black And Red’. Nice interplay between vocals and guitar riffs here. Some spoken vocals, some desperate shouting. It all meanders away very enjoyably with reasonable intensity.
Members of the band later went on to form various other bands such as Mr. Willis Of Ohio, Marianne started up Ape Must Not Kill Ape records which has put out a lot of awesome modern emo releases over the last few years. In summary, if you like mid 90s emo music, particularly the European style of it, then you should check Ferguson out.
9th May 2009