Time
Is Of Essence is the most British album you’ll
hear this year. Fort Lauderdale’s music has the
distinction tempered with a touch of decadence often associated
with late nineteenth Century Britain. Although Steve Webster
and Toby Jenkins offer a fundamentally electronic vision,
their epic arrangements are of cinematic grandeur. This
is orchestral synth-pop. Pianos, accordions and string
sections confront electronic guitars, wurlitzers, cheap
seventies gimmicks and analogue sounds to create a disparate
atmosphere. The occasional addition of vocals (Time
Is Of The Essence, Flux 1912, The Playboys
Demise) only accentuates the dichotomy of the Fort
Lauderdale equation.
For this second album, the duo twist their sonic world
just a little bit more. They constantly seem to follow
a multitude of musical lines at the same time, placing
them randomly on top of each other in a gigantic Lego.
The compositions are complex and creative. However, Webster
and Jenkins always manage to isolate their enlightened
melodies enough to avoid musical chaos. We Ain’t
Got No Money Honey, which opens the album, is a majestic
piece of incisive work, served by tear-jerking strings,
swirling harps and guitars and twitchy keyboards. As they
swerve on the verge of psychedeliam, the Air-esque Down
Cricket Lilly Lane and Flux 1912 revisit
seventies prog rock, while The Playboys Demise
flirts with soft porn background muzak and nursery rhymes
nostalgia. Fort Lauderdale act as if they desperately
wanted to loose their listeners in their imaginary maze,
only to change their mind and guide them to safety. Far
from being confusing though, Time Is Of The Essence
is a captivating record, filled with influences ranging
from Bowie to Pink Floyd and from The Beatles to John
Barry, constantly playing with emotions, and feeling like
a sixties futuristic movie soundtrack.
Although Time Is The Essence is only Fort Lauderdale’s
second album, the band already shows an impressive sense
of direction, as they combine superb melodies and beautiful
arrangements.
4/5 |
