07/01/08
Text: Nik Mercer
British kraut-/prog-rock revivalists, Fujiya & Miyagi are finally back with a new single, "Knickerbocker," and word of a "sophomore" LP, Lightbulbs, out on Deaf & Dumb Records on September 16. ("Sophomore" is in quotes since, as many of us know, F & M have released two albums prior to the forthcoming one, but the actual debut, Electro Karaoke in the Negative Style, never hit Stateside.)
"Knickerbocker" starts with one of the quartet's usual innocuous yet nonsensical tag lines ("Vanilla, strawberry/Knickerbocker glory"), then the heavy bass line drops in with mechanized, progressive drumming, ethereal, experimental synth lines pop up, guitar plucks and scratches enter into the picture, and we've got a jam. It's magical, the way F & M enraptures listeners with simple layering and patient buildups. We can't all be A.D.D. music fans if this is what's hip.
The band wrote custom liner notes on each of the new full-length's twelve tracks, too. You'll find our favorite two below.
5. Rook To Queen’s Pawn Six Loose funk, with a playful guitar rattle, rolling it’s ‘R’s through the story of chess eccentric Bobby Fischer who’s caught in a cold war Bond-esque challenge with computers and a bug in his teeth.
6. Sore Thumb A strutting funk celebration of heroic Viv Stanshall whose Men Opening Umbrellas Ahead has him sounding like Beefheart especially on the psychedelic rumba of the justifiably namechecked Strange Tongues
