Sunday, 2 November 2008

Review - The FM Flash - Being A Safe Place

The FM Flash - Being A Safe Place

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6 out of 10

Opening this live EP is a piece commissioned for The Place Prize for dance 2008. Despite being 'British dance's most prestigious prize' with an overall winner's purse of twenty-five grand, the Place couldn't get Mogwai to provide the music. So they went for The FM Flash, five chaps from London with evident inspiration from Glasgow's Young Team. With its quiet-quiet-LOUD template, Being A Safe Place could be a Mogwai work-in-progress and, as such, stands or falls on whether you like that kind of thing.

Much more interesting, however (and saving the EP from yet another deluge of smug put-downs from yours truly), are the other two tracks. Once More With Anger has the atmosphere of those acoustic interludes on early Black Sabbath albums, slightly medieval, slightly classical, short. The Further You Walk. . . , whilst still never far from the 'gwai, mixes in enough acoustic shimmer and Tortoise stagger to remain a show of potential. It remains to be seen whether they can find an audience to shut up for long enough to listen to it but that's another story.

Listen: www.myspace.com/thefmflash

Tracklist:
1. Being A Safe Place
2. Once More With Anger
3. The Further You Walk The Harder It Rains and If You're Running. . . Well. . .

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