The latest in a seemingly endless line of bands heralded as ‘the new Arcade Fire’, Fanfarlo display an almost effortless maturity on their debut album that the other candidates may lack. Opening track ‘I’m a Pilot’ is a wonderful introduction to their brand of folk rock with a steady, marching beat, a gentle piano riff, Simon Balthazar’s distinctive vocals and a large portion of strings, all of which grow and grow before being unleashed in a huge, swirling conclusion. ‘Comets’ starts as a gentle ballad with the instruments hardly noticeable under the vocals but then bursts in to life, complete with more strings, trumpets and synths. Undoubted highlight ‘Fire Escape’ has a wonderfully melodic verse and the most engaging chorus on the album with brass and strings working perfectly in unison, which perhaps loses its momentum a bit too quickly, but the overall pace of the song ensures that this minor blip is quickly forgotten.
The second half of the album is arguably weaker that the first but still includes the previous single ‘Harold T Wilkins’ and a beautiful instrumental track to close the album in ‘Good Morning Midnight’. Comparisons with Arcade Fire are perhaps a bit lazy as Fanfarlo deserve to be lauded for their own talent rather than hijacking a ride from someone else and they possess enough inventiveness to break free from this. So if you want to take a chance on a band this year make it Fanfarlo and, with the band offering ‘Reservoir’ for only $1 (that’s only 60p!) on their website www.fanfarlo.com, until the 4th July it’s a chance that you can’t afford to miss.
Adam Gibby (View Original Article)
Fanfarlo are an awkward proposition for Holloway Road in this weather. The temperature outside is close to freezing, and by close I mean almost certainly below, and the queue to get into the Buffalo Bar is round the block. There is a buzz in the line that doesn’t shouldn’t exist in such adverse conditions. For those predisposed to the negative, it would be hard to justify all this for the lads from Sweden.
Things start inauspiciously. Having missed the first of four support bands, Honeytrap get me up to speed by stridently knocking out a load of tosh reminiscent of Beirut with a monstrous ego and an art-school cardigan. Not very good.
Thankfully Laurel Collective are much more interesting, after a long delay getting all their bits and bobs in order, they played a mixture of post-rock and electro not nearly as redundant as those labels have become. The energy and imagination of the synths they used was something slightly outside the usual timid slivers dreamt up by `electronic` guitar bands. Their singer too was enthralling, a charismatic figure who seemed to thrive on the crackle and fizz of the musicians around him.
By the end of Laurel Collective’s set it was starting to feel like a long night. Although the packed-out-yet-tiny confines of the Buffalo Bar had removed any of the chills from earlier, my immediate neighbours in the crowd were becoming insufferable. The warm up music for Fanfarlo was a trip down Britpop memory lane, which meant screaming along to `Connection` by Elastica at the top of their lungs.
So it was a considerable relief when Fanfarlo finally emerged at 11.40, all ablaze with trumpet sounds that seem to linger below and above the tight vocal harmonies. The keys were just veering far enough towards drone to evoke a hint of navel gazing, nicely taking the edge off the happy, while the overall feel was not too far from the more soothing moments of Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. Fanfarlo have an album coming out early this year, and are scheduled to play SXSW in spring, so it’s fair to say the sextet is gathering momentum. Certainly enough to brave the bleak London midwinter on a Saturday night for anyway.
Bob Ferguson (View Original Article)
