Late Of The Pier - Fantasy Black Channel

Mad as a box of frogs is a horrid term; the kind of thing you expect to have squealed at you by someone who sees themselves accurately described by adjectives like ‘wacky’ and ‘zany’. The kind of person who’d turn up to a Christmas Party dressed up like some kind of near future Pagan priest, strangling a bloody, long dead guinea fowl before running off giggling into the nearest forrest. Or maybe that’s just Late Of The Pier.

There’s little that’s conventional about long awaited debut album ‘Fantasy Black Channel’. It’s quite obviously produced by Erol Alkan, with the sound of Gameboys being vomited all over the place in one great big 8-bit extravaganza. Some will reference Klaxons, others Zappa, but really what we have here is one almighty, glorious mess. And yes, that is a good thing.

‘Bathroom Gurgle’, ‘Space And The Woods’ and ‘The Bears Are Coming’ all sound as bewilderingly immediate as they did in single form, but rather than be surrounded by a whole sea of filler there’s something more akin to the results of letting a bull loose in a Swarofski crystal shop. Broken not-quite-jewels glitter abound in the likes of ‘Hot Tent Blues’ and ‘Broken’; quite possibly the album’s stand out track. Musical description does little for Late Of The Pier - think more of Darth Vader riding a unicorn that’s surfing on a sherbet rainbow and you’re half way there.

In reality (and trust us, it’s probably been nowhere near reality), ‘Fantasy Black Channel’ could be as much a display in the Science Museum as it could be a head trip in a fucked up Narnia - beams of light hitting millions of tiny prisms, making Pink Floyd look like boring Dads sat in Ford Mondeos, waiting outside a school disco held in a castle made of emeralds. As they say in business, you’ve got to think outside the box for this one.

Depending who you are, Late Of The Pier will either be a load of white noise, or something fantastical. One thing’s for sure, it’s probably a great barometer of if you’re ‘too old for this kind of thing these days’. On the evidence of this, the kids are alright.