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Fear Up Harsh (iii)

by Fear Up Harsh

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  • Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    Cover photography by Mark Solter.

    Includes unlimited streaming of Fear Up Harsh (iii) via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
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1.
The New Eve 04:08
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2.
Revolution By Night 03:06
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3.
Lie Still 04:27
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4.
Seventeen Spices 03:51
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5.
Blind Power 05:27
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6.
Remington Blues 04:45
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7.
Parade of Faces 15:31
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8.
Desolation of the Deep 03:00
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9.
Temple Garden 06:57
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10.
Cityscape (The Dream) 03:42
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about

Fear Up Harsh (III) is a collection of music taken from recordings of live, improvised rehearsals at Lindenstrasse Studios, Auckland, New Zealand, between 2021 and 2022.

Review: MUZIC.NET.NZ
19 OCT 2022 // A REVIEW BY STEVE SHYU
It’s been described before here on Muzic.net.nz that Fear Up Harsh are “enigmatic works of cinematic wonder, not always appreciated, understood, or even known by the unfeeling majority”. Upon reading this, I knew I wasn’t in on the sort of album I was used to reviewing. Alas, I was ready to venture in without any pre-emptive stakes.

Straight away, with opening tracks The New Eve and Revolution by Night, you knew this was not a record with radio singles to speak of. Lots of repeated rhythms, samples and electronic riffs. But with any release, there is always value to be discovered.

As earlier reviews of earlier albums have stated, the tracks are extremely cinematic; this particular release is no different. There’s the eerie and enigmatic Lie Still, sounding like the score to a horror film or a spy-thriller TV serial. The pulsing bass provides an air of mystique, while the keyboard chords provide a sense of foreboding and intrigue. In a theatre of one’s mind, this could be set to a scene where the central character is in hiding, while the villain prowls. Truly cinematic stuff. Perhaps scoring instrumental accompaniments could be in the artists’ future?

Given the title of Seventeen Spices, there isn’t anything to show that this track wasn’t inspired by a dream of some new and unreleased KFC recipe chicken. Instead, with the bass drones, the jazzy, fluttering flute notes, there is every possibility the aforementioned seventeen spices are really psychedelic substances!

Remington Blues probably features as the most energetic on the record, if there was a metric for it. There’s a mid-tempo, lightly-industrial beat, with the metallic aspects further driven by sampled percussions.

Seemingly inspired by some fever dream might have, Parade of Faces makes for an arduous, twelve-minute long journey through a spaced-out soundscape. Featuring sustained keyboard chords, punctuated by light sizzling effects, and whispered utterances one might do while talking in their sleep.

The album is deeply experimental, and one that certainly is hard to categorise any further than instrumental and avant-garde. Parallels could be drawn with the dark-ambience albums Ghosts I-IV by Nine Inch Nails; no overt melodies, certainly no hooks, and somewhat limited on dynamics. At the duo’s admissions of improvisations, some tracks feel a bit more ad hoc than others. Temple Garden and Blind Power indeed felt very fleeting and open-ended.

In the world of atmospheric music, there is a hard-to-explain balance between simplicity and complexity. On one hand, there are plenty of layers of sound, whilst not complicated individually, there is some chemistry between the layers, all contributing to either texture or tension. A key is determined upon, then additional sound effects and instruments are applied on top - Definitely very much in the streams of nuanced cinematic music.

For those interested in soundscapes, outside-the-box and experimental music, this is perhaps one you’ll wish to stop by and check out. This is probably best enjoyed with the volume up, curtains shut, incense burning, and eyes closed. And hitting repeat a few times, as I did, to find deeper meaning to the blending of sounds.

At times, less is more. But in this case, less structure and more aural complexity seems to be the name of the game.

Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆ ( 5 / 5 )

credits

released October 21, 2022

Michael Ferriss, synthesizers and treatments;
Jeffrey Gane, percussion and voice
Mark Solter, photography and bass guitar on track 10

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Fear Up Harsh Auckland, New Zealand

Fear Up Harsh is Jeffrey Gane on percussion, voice etc. and Michael Ferriss on synthesizer, piano and sound treatments.

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