Trips and Falls are a new band to Frukie who have just released their album: He Was Such a Quiet Boy on Song, by Toad Records. Describing them is no easy task. There was some struggling with filling out the press release due to a lack of detail provided by the band. That’s not always a bad thing of course, in this case it sort of adds to the curiosity factor that the band have which seems to works in their favour.
They are described as:
Gentle and spooky guitar pop, alternately sadly sweet and disturbingly arrhythmic
The album is one of the more unusual albums I’ve heard in some time but it has bucket loads of variety and that word ‘alternately’ mentioned above should be in bold.
There are some great uplifting guitar rifts throughout the album which balance out downtempo parts nicely. They allow a lot of freedom, though not freeform, within each track which can have a range of moods from catchy rifts to downbeat singing and some manic driven keyboards (How Do You Do) which initially catch you by surprise but then beckon you back for more. You get the opposite spectrum on We Were Like Strangers Today which ventures close to sweetened Indie Pop in places.
So just when you are feeling comfortable with what to expect they throw in something normal sounding likeAnd in Real Life He Wears Corduroy Pants. Very nice vocals and ambient sounding keyboards…almost too normal…nothing like the first two…do you get the picture now? You just cannot pin this album down. There is an undertone of menace or is it spookiness to a lot of the album. Anyone remember Thinguma*jigSaw? They described themselves as Splatterfolk, well Trips and Falls come pretty close to it in places, especially on You Should Really Get Yours. There is an underlying horror but it’s a bit like a freakshow…you can’t help but look. There is so much going on on this album and I can see why they trimmed it down from 15 tracks to 9. There is a balance between interesting and overwhelming and the balance sounds about right now.
My top favourite is Prelude to a Shark Attack:
[audio:http://www.box.net/shared/static/lgfl8qdeqo.mp3|titles=Prelude to a Shark|artists=Trips and Falls]
The album is a bit of a swaying trip with a hint of cabaret like playfulness which, combined with the unexpected and daring make this album something special.
I’m hooked! This will definately appeal to many Frukie Channel listeners.
Trips and Falls are:
Jacob Romero – vocals, guitars & various other stuff;
Paul Gareau – drums, percussion.
Amanda Caron, Joni Ward, Ashleigh Delaye – vocals;
Emily Burkes-Nossiter – violins;
Laurel Sprengelmeyer, Orson Presence – keyboards;
Marc St.Louis – cello.
You can buy it here: http://songbytoadrecords.com/