| |
FET.NAT
Le Mal
Boiled - 2019
Michael Panontin
|
Hull? Who knew?
That is precisely the response I received when I sent a link of FET.NAT's excellent Le Mal to an in-the-know friend of mine. FET.NAT have been kicking around the overlooked French-speaking side of the capital since about 2010. Back then, they churned out a rougher-hewn Beefheatian barrage of guitar, bass and drums that would have thrilled those who actually claim to 'like' Trout Mask Replica (for which there is Facebook group, believe it or not).
These days, the four-piece - that would be vocalist JNFO, guitarist Pierre-Luc Clement, bass player Linsey Wellman and drummer Olivier Fairfield - have steered their sound down more extreme paths, with fractured beats and loping basslines crashing head on into squonking sax and absurdist spoken-word poetics en franglais. Think outer-fringe punk-funk like Glaxo Babies or 23 Skidoo, especially the former's 1980 throwdown 'Maximum Sexual Joy', with a bit of Matmos or Squarepusher thrown in for good measure.
Le Mal is the band's second LP proper. Oddly, the record is split into a side one of five tracks and then a side two of MIDI versions of four of those tracks. Which for astute rock and roll nerds ought to recall Neu's sophomore disc, Neu 2, where the German duo, after having blown their budget on side one, simply added slowed-down and sped-up versions to fill up the second side.
Whatever FET.NAT's motive, Le Mal most certainly feels like a complete work. 'Patio Monday', the album's best track and the closest to the aforementioned Glaxo Babies tune, is a gloriously freaky sonic assault, set atop a jerky-funky rhythm and punctuated with saxophone skronks and weirdly unsettling female chants. Its counterpart, drolly retitled 'Patio Tuesday', is nearly as perfect, with those quirky beats even more hacked up and the chants drawn out for the final minute or so. Ditto for 'Tapis' and 'Tapis d'Orient', where Clement's springy slap-bass and Fairfield's disjointed drumming are especially impressive. Equally cool is the two-minute 'Soft Purse', an industrial-strength workout that out to please fans of Fairfield's short-lived Last Ex project.
Le Mal is a strictly limited concern - just 500 copies on black vinyl with a retro dot matrix paper insert - so you'd better get on this if you want a copy.
|
Boiled
|
Suggestions
Kiwi Jr
Football Money
Mint
Nutrients
Such Slime (download only single)
(independent)
The Cosmic Range
The Gratitude Principle
Idee Fixe
N0V3L
Novel EP
Flemish Eye
|
