Fanfarlo : 'Reservoir'
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Fanfarlo, though based in London, via Sweden (through founding member Simon Balthazar), sound as though they come straight out of Montreal. Utilising a variety of instruments from the traditional guitars and drums through to strings, brass and beyond, they give off the feeling that they could have spent the last few years hanging out with Stars and Broken Social Scene in the bars and venues of Canada’s most (currently) notable musical city.
Of course, if you know these bands well, that means you’ll know the complex arrangements of many different instruments, the layers of sound it creates and the fat that it can be pretty tricky to describe effectively. For those of you that don’t, well… I’m going to try anyway!
Opener “I'm A Pilot” is heartfelt piece built around a big kick drum, handclaps and a simple piano piece, offset by subtle strings arrangements. “Ghosts” is next up, and really it is where the layers really start to build. An upbeat pop song with a strange mixture of downbeat trumpets complementing the verse before building into a delightfully happy chorus. “Luna” is a straight up indie-pop track, utilising fast paced and upbeat keyboards, before taking a breather for the second half of the song and bringing out soft vocals and the brass section, while “Comets” reverses the process starting of as a gently moving indie piece before bouncing off in an excited fashion, happy as Larry.
“Fire Escape” sees lush electronics play off against a strong vocal, mournful strings and big carefully arranged choruses. “The Walls Are Coming Down”, appropriately, feels very much like the centrepiece of the album, a huge soaring song that has the feeling of summer anthem and hit single about it. Single “Drowning Men” is just that, a consistently paced piece based around a simple hook that serves well as a single release, before “If It Is Growing” slows everything down in a wonderfully un-dramatic fashion, a slow and moving song. We pass through another single in “Harold T. Wilkins…” then “Finish Line” leads nicely up to the closing “Good Morning Midnight” in the typical gentle build of the rest of the album, at which point the afore mentioned closer takes us out in a minute and a half of pure acoustic beauty, summing up the feel of the album in one short moment of reflection.
Words: James Hoste
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