It’s that time of the year again: ‘The Straight & The Curly‘ is the fourth album in four years by the dream punk project Fir Cone Children, and while the sound of the band has more and more evolved from a garage rock lo-fi project to a really fast and stormy shoegaze outfit that isn’t afraid of even using blastbeats, Alexander Leonard Donat who is FCC’s sole member has begun to open up for softer sounds and the influence of others artists. On the predecessor “No Gravity Girls” (2017) he included piano sounds, apparent pop music ingredients and a guest singer on three songs: Krissy Vanderwoude from shoegazers Whimsical.
On the new album more of Krissy Vanderwoude and more of that piano awaits you, the sound matures just like the subjects of “The Straight & The Curly”, Donat’s children (aged 3 and 5) who are the reason the project even exists. The fast-paced opener “3D” starts with the naïve lyric “Behind my face there’s a growing consciousness” – the older daughter, of course, is not used to forming abstract thoughts, so a language that transports the thoughts of a child with the help of an adult is required. When a child is connecting the dots and realizing that the known world is expanding with every day, something is happening in this little head. Everything remains wild and exciting, just like Fir Cone Children who are still racing around like there’s no tomorrow, with the side effect that the older children get the more they discover and try out. And who knows if the closer’s electronic frizzle that suddenly surfaces from the sub bass and melancholic piano gives us a hint of what to expect next from FCC.
Out via Blackjack Illuminist Records.