In honor of their upcoming show this Friday with Buffalonians Bryan Johnson & Family and Brother Keep, we have chosen Rochester-based Fowls' debut album, Into the Wild, as this week's Album of the Week.
Fowls' music falls somewhere in between indie pop and math rock, what they affectionately call "math pop." That's actually a fairly accurate description of the band - their blistering indie rock is catchy and jagged, reminiscent of Tokyo Police Club with an eclectic vocal section that brings Bombay Bicycle Club to mind. In fact, I really got excited when I noticed the inclusion of Pretty Girls Make Graves in their section of influences... But the closest comparison would be to the riffy math-rock of Maps and Atlases or the laid-back loop-heavy indie rock of Minus the Bear.
Album opener "Honey" is a full five minutes of jagged guitar lines and polyrhythms. Fowls doesn't always recreate the energy of "Honey" (that is not a bad thing by any means), but they also never disappoint. Take for example, the opposite end of the album, "Honeycomb," which takes a constant wavering bass line and builds a solid, smooth groove over it.
Bands like Fowls are always so intriguing to me - they take organic instruments and lock in with each other so tightly. They inevitably create tightly spun songs that pulse with some sort of energy that seems bound to unravel at any moment... But that's the magic of any genre that you tag with the word "math." It's supposed to sound precise and calculated. Especially coming from the perspective of a fellow musician, I can't help but catch myself thinking, "how did they do that?"
I must reiterate - you can catch Fowls this Friday at DBGBs. Doors are at 9, music starts at 10pm with a totally affordable $5 cover.
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