Fotosputnik - Idiolects - CD (2011)

Labels: The Static Cult
Review by: Oli Saunders

This was super tough to review. Fotosputnik make most of the bands on this label seem fairly easy

to listen to in comparison – layering multiple loops on top of one another with incredible

subtlety, yet witholding the listener the usual hooks that one is used to. Unfortunately for me, when bands make guitar based music but ditch vocals along with the common post-rock approach I can’t quite deal with it.

It’s beautiful at times, and sort of sounds like a soundtrack to something. But more often than not a mesmerising groove gives way to something far more ordinary, or cuts off too soon. The best example is the final track ‘Lunar Module’, which perfectly exemplifies the spacerock tag for the first two minutes but then slides into two guitars playing about four notes repetively for its remainder. Other tracks such as ‘Only Answer Is Arson’ and ‘Turnpike (Death Valley Driver)’ are excellent in part but again feel a little underdeveloped. ‘Mars Is Peopled And They Want Soap’ finally does a job job, reaching the seven minute mark and actually going somewhere.

At times this is superb progressive music, but overall the combination of pulsating and hypnotic riffs cutting off too soon makes it a little flat for my tastes. I think there’s a time and a place to listen to something like this, but you need it to be such that the soundtrack fits.

5th November 2011