Fotoform by Fotoform
KEXP Listener's 90.3 records of 2017.
Jack Rabid, Big Takeover, Jack’s Top 40 (and top albums of 2017):
Fotoform s/t
Having apparently wearied of their negative-connotation moniker, C’est La Mort (“that’s death,” the opposite of c’est la vie), Seattle’s Brit-sounding post-punkers follow up their accomplished 2010 debut Empty Words Fill Lonely Spaces by changing their name, not their design. Although versed/vested in all ethereal effects-dominated U.K. music—two years ago, they aced Pale Saints’ immortal “Sight of You”—like fantastic 1981 California anglophile antecedents Choir Invisible and Sleepers after both left punk, and later ’80s For Against, theirs is a Joy Division/Siouxsie/Sound/Sad Lovers & Giants/Cocteau Twins stew that hasn’t lost any evocative power. With their Peter Hook/Pornography Cure bass, cascading pre-shoegaze guitar shivers, challenging rhythmic complexity (powerful on “If You Fall” and the Bunnymen “Over the Wall”-ish “The City Breathes”), and the lissome, downy-tones of female singer Kim House, this a stimulating band 4AD, Factory, Static, or Korova could have signed.
Tracklist
| 1. | In winter | 5:30 |
| 2. | If you fall | 4:32 |
| 3. | Every instant | 4:29 |
| 4. | Retracing suburbia | 5:00 |
| 5. | I know you're charming | 3:13 |
| 6. | The city breathes | 4:05 |
| 7. | Yves Klein blue | 4:09 |
| 8. | In the sky | 4:44 |
Credits
Kim House: bass, vocals; Geoff Cox: guitars, effects; Garrett Croxon: drums; Stephen Jones: guitars 1, 6, 7, vocals 7; Greg Forschler: guitars on rest.
All songs by Fototoform, words by Kim. (p) 2017 Fotoform. Pitch A Lily Music (ASCAP)
1, 6, 7 Recorded and mixed by Jakael Tristram at Robert Lang Studios, Shoreline WA
2, 3, 4, 5, 8 Recorded by Scott Colburn at Gravelvoice, Seattle, mixed by Matt Brown.
Mastered by Ed Brooks at Resonant Mastering, Seattle
Vinyl Master by Black Belt Mastering, Seattle
