Ten years after its inception, Front and Follow‘s roster has grown up to be a very interesting beast indeed. Straggling left-field electronicia, folk and avant-pop, fostering strong recurring returns from Kemper Norton, The Doomed Bird of Providence and Sone Institute whilst always pushing further afield, finding new collaborations, letting their eclectic see what happens philosophy spin. An imaginative approach that has cause to celebrate in this two disc-set entitled Lessons.
A label born from the firm foundations of the Scout badge years with Andy Nice, Elite Barbarian and Yonokiero then mixing things up with the collaboration candy of Collision / Detection and peppered parallels that fuse nicely together, The Doomed Bird Of Providence with their colonial bleakness, the hauntologies of Time Attendant and Leyland Kirby. Strange notions of dancability shuffling the fricative fortunes rubbing shoulders with ambient experimentalists, that Nyman-esque curling repeat of TVO.
A sneaky sense of suspense looming over the electronics, a cinematic sense of other always tickling your intrigue, like a Haruki Murakami novella that leaves you in need of more. New concoctions like Swine (including Hacker Farm‘s Farmer Glitch) injecting a sinister skew to proceedings. The psychedelic intelligentsia of IX Tab (his latest album The World Is Not Where We Are is well worth checking out) shooting silver bullets to your inner werewolf. There’s a ludicrous amount of goodness leaking from this baby, that warm electro skiv of Pye Corner Audio‘s “Fogged_M1”, Giant Head‘s chiselled narrative and narcotic doubles, Graham Reznick and Hoofus giving you an irresistible itch in the groovesome department. Something for everybody from a label that’s bubbling over itself with inspiration, digging deep and beyond.-Michael Rodham-Heaps-
