Gnomefoam – Fucklord Dragonfist

Now where to start with Gnomefoam, I first bumped into them via a collaborative project on the wonderfully diverse net label Rack & Ruin, a project they worked on with _ yep _, now _ is a brilliant artist that specialises in his own little world a world where _ rains supreme and field recordings and sporadic ideas rule. The Gnomefoam/_ axis of sound was called Anata Wa Sukkari Tsukarete Shimai, which came in the form of two EPs one noisy on R&R and one laid back on Bearsuit Records, both polls apart in sound but just as brilliant to listen to. But now we have Gnomefoam on his own with Fucklord Dragonfist a sample-shafting journey through sound.

Freaky collages of words and fx usher in the album with sample addled tracks opening out in front of you, but things really come into their own on the shimmering laid back beauty of ‘FADE’, which feels like a hip-hop variant on the twinkling ambient experiments of Aphex Twin. ‘Beasthole Tunebarge’ comes on like a freaky hybrid of the Beach Boy aping indie hipsters Animal Collective and Grizzly Bear doing an acapela in space as punishment for being mentioned in every music publication on earth to the point that you’re a bit sick of the site of the names, and it sounds brilliant too.

The underwater siren song of ‘Saved by Beluga’ is a twisted otherworldly story from the deep that really comes into its own when the orchestral swells and delayed spoken word samples come into full effect, before melting into the surf… ‘Livid’ balances the disturbing with the laid back, by throwing together bursts of noise and rolling electro drums with distorted vocal snippets and a mesmerising guitar loop, it works really well as a juxtaposition. ‘The Fucklord’ pulls off a similar feat, with its horror film screams and disturbing monologs drenched in effects, but then it kicks off in a whole new direction with rave addled breaks and even a small metal lick.

The almost Portishead-like vocals on ‘Wright/Griffths’ have a hazy dreamy quality that draws you in then some seriously twisted soul grooves appear like you’ve driven past a funky house club on a windswept rainy night. The toy town breakbeat of ‘Hostage Moth Guns’ flys out of the gates like a deranged Go Team! Before taking a more atmospheric direction in the mid section before it drops back into the car chase soundtrack breaks.

Gnomefoam has made an enjoyable collage of sound that jumps from the eerie and sublime to the fun and noisy at the drop of a hat. The messy sporadic nature of it all is endearing and makes for an interesting listen.

Download: Gnomefoam – Fucklord Dragonfist

http://www.myspace.com/gnomefoam

http://www.rackandruinrecords.com/