Late of the Pier – Fantasy Black Channel

Late of The Pier - Fantasy Black Channel

If you’re a music fan looking for a taste of something different, unique and thrilling, Late of the Pier’s ‘Fantasy Black Channel’ is a fantastic purchase, packed with twelve original and exciting tracks. The four-piece band from Castle Donnington have taken music to a new level, bringing us an album full of fast paced energetic rave sounds and futuristic synths behind Samuel Eastgate’s versatile vocals throughout. The studio album its self is wonderfully crafted, the opening track ‘Hot Tent Blues’ merging into a fast paced, choppy ‘Broken’, as well as ‘Mad Dogs and Englishmen’ coming to an anticlimax before becoming the opening of ‘Bathroom Gurgle’.

The lyrics throughout the album at times seem almost schizophrenic, the lyric structure in many songs incomprehensible due to the broken syntax and high pitched screaming of Eastgate’s vocals. ‘Bathroom Gurgle’, the closing song of the album is stated as ‘unknown’ when viewing the song lyrics on the Late of the Pier official site, which summarises much of the lyrics throughout the album. The lyrics of which are comprehendible seem intoxicated and revolving escapism and light hearted ‘easy-life’ “lately i've been thinking this whole world seems too hard and i'd be better off to undo everything” from ‘Random Firl’ as well as the repetition of “easy life, is it an easy life” throughout ‘The Enemy are the Future’. In tracks such as ‘V W’ lyrics are completely put aside so the audience can marvel over the experimental synth sounds throughout the song.

Late of the Pier have created a highly unique exciting new sound, maybe not appealing to everyone – but nevertheless have found a gap in the market giving them high chances of progression. If you enjoy the categorised ‘new rave’ music, Klaxons or similar sounds then this album is certainly for you. ‘Fantasy Black Channel’ contains great sounds, a great vocalist and one ‘must buy’ album.

By Acid Nation