Label: Rocketgirl/Mind Expansion Format: CD
Füxa‘s sixth album finds Randall Nieman‘s particular take on guitary synth music (or perhaps, synthy guitar music) developed yet further into a sound of drones and melodies which insinuate their way into the background and back again. Aided by the steadfast drumming of Drew Peters and occasional low-key vocal contributions from Stephen Lawrie and Jo Doran, Supercharged will more than likely have started and proceeded through a few tracks before the quiet beauty of Füxa’s music insinuates its way thoroughly into the subconscious, coasting on oscillators set to gentle waves of subsurface ambience.
There is an air of placid outer space drift to the record, as washed voices trip lightly out of the sub-aether, whispering sweet nothings; tinkling melodies are hinted at but never foregrounded, and the guitars play steadily through to the spaceshot takeoff – but Spaceship Füxa has low-emission anti-gravity drives attached, because their sector of the solar system doesn’t allow those nasty chemical rockets with all the associated imagery of power and thrusting explosion. No squittering UFO fly-bys either. Instead, lift off is long, slow and ever so smooth, taking the trip from atmosphere to deep space on the gentlest of hums and with time to relax back into the comfy seating arrangements with only the slightest of cosmic ray interference at “420”.
When fully underway in the marvellously zero-G chamber of “It Was You”, the autopilot lets things coast off into a semi-conscious slumberland of lightsail propulsion and wide-arc manoeuvres, rocking on the unfurled sinewaves and crisp percussion as if there was all the time in the worlds. Which there might as well be, for despite a journey time of just over half an hour, Supercharged packs in plenty of pleasant dreamscape tourism opportunities. Even if some tracks become comfortably, even perhaps narcoleptically, familar, there’s no great problem revisiting for another relaxed listen either.
-Linus Tossio-
