Wow! That was gonna be my review. Just a simple wow..... I felt I owed you more
than that so I'll add to it. Shit this is good! You still want more? We've been
playing this pretty constantly for weeks now and it just gets better every
single time we hear it. We got sent a promo of Leave Now For Adventure a month or so ago by someone
who knew we'd love and had to hear it. He wasn't wrong. It's just got to be one
of the finest electronica albums of the year. The sounds, tunes, melodies,
beats... they're all there in buckets and spades. If anyone remembers that first
Abstrakt Keal Agram CD it reminds me of the genius of that. Initially the easy comparison
is M83 (without the pomp) and 65 Days of Static with less rock. That's probably
pretty accurate come to think of it. If you liked that recent Northstation album
and are a fan of bedroom electronics then Feedle has created something you need in your life. At
times the electronics are quite crunchy but they're interspersed with bagloads of
melody and at times there's even some My Bloody Valentine style dronings
in the background. It's quite 'indie' at times but it's heart is in pure
electronics and it's truly quite experimental at times whilst staying firmly
implanted on the side of greatness (rather than the side of toss). It's kind of
having a similar effect to me as Pause did by Four Tet. I really can't recommend
this enough. We still have a few of the 12" left from last week!! Thanks to Joe Clay for bringing this ace thing to our attention!
Love this record? Hate it? Tell us.
What their label says...
Illicit Recordings are proud to be the label releasing the debut album ‘Leave Now for Adventure’, from the Sheffield-based artist Feedle. The album is available on a digipack CD on March 26th 2007.
The original incarnation of ‘Leave Now for Adventure’ was released by the mp3 label SVC Records in February 2006. It was made available as a digital download only, but still managed to attract support from Huw Stephens (who described it as “AMAZING!”) and Steve Lamacq at Radio One and Stuart Maconie on BBC6 Music who all played tracks from the album. It also received several approving reviews, including a stunning one from Drowned in Sound who gave the record 9/10 and proclaimed it to be, “the most satisfying electronica album of the year.”
All this favourable noise brought it to the attention of the London-based indie Illicit Recordings, and ‘Leave Now for Adventure’ has since been lovingly remastered, several of the tracks have been given a complete overhaul and additional songs have been added, making the official CD release a very different beast from its on-line cousin.
Feedle is the pseudonym of 29-year-old Graham Clarke, a native of the Midlands who is now based in Sheffield. ‘Leave Now for Adventure’ is the tale of one man's dogged pursuit of the finest electronic melodies, ragged drunken beats and howling noise.
Feedle, like Kevin Shields and Mogwai before him, possesses the rare ability to transform extreme noise into something quite beautiful, as demonstrated by opener ‘Song for Dogs’, a squealing, roaring distorted racket underpinned by subtle melodies lurking beneath the paint-shredding cacophony of fizzing, life affirming white noise and drums.
He also demonstrates a subtler touch on tracks like ‘Cold Pause Strings’, which provides an eerie lull from the sonic battering and disquiets gently with nostalgic medieval melodies, and ‘Go Home! Revolving Piano’ which is a simple yet hypnotic song played solely on the piano.
Elsewhere, ‘Burn the Fields’ is music for torching your home town to, an incendiary crackle of superfuzz and portentous key changes, which eventually yields to plaintive pianos.
Distant fireworks herald the beatbox driven male-female vox push and pull of ‘Everything Slow’, which quickly adds a smirk to the proceedings, with off the wall hands-in-pockets whistling and a remembrance day parade of drummers.
‘This Troubles All Dust’, with its perky folk-guitar licks, pounding drums and bah-bah-bah vocal refrain, features the only sung segment to occur anywhere on the album, with a vocal delivery reminiscent of Syd Barrett or Graham Coxon.
‘Man vs. the Hallucinations’ is the sonic backdrop to an acid-fried battle with King Kong in a fully operational Battersea Power Station. Thundering drums wrestle with factory klaxons and the sound of excited droids banging sheets of white hot metal - an aural assault reminiscent of the Orb back when Dr Alex and Thrash ruled the world.
The album has been described as “like Fennesz remixed by the Flaming Lips” which is a suitably nonsensical way to try and pigeonhole a record that refuses to sit still, though still makes some kind of sense, as intricate electronic noise rubs shoulders with frazzled psychedelia.
‘Leave Now for Adventure’ is preceded by the release of a 12” single featuring ‘Song for Dogs’ and ‘Her Brain Goes Global’, which does not feature on the album.
Feedle will be playing live in support of the album’s release, complimented by a full visual display from a special collaborator.
Feedle has recorded an exclusive session for John Kennedy’s X-posure show for XFm, which will be broadcast sometime in February.
“It may come from a near-wordless place with a synthetic heartbeat, but this album packs the sort of intense emotion and hot, blustery passion that by rights should have people fawning over it past a time when the bar is raised even higher.” Drowned in Sound, 9/10