Album Review: Field Music - "Field Music (Measure)"

by Brad Roberts

 

The new CD by Field Music released Tuesday, February 16, 2010, is called Field Music (Measure) and it is an ambitious, epic double album of hypnotically entrancing art-rock. I think it's an astonishing achievement and I can't stop playing it. Conceived as a double album it sits on one CD that is one hour and fifteen minutes long, but I could have taken even more.

 

When Field Music announced an upcoming show at Bootleg Theatre for March 27, 2010, I decided it was time to get into this band. They came at me sideways a few years ago when I happened upon their music video for "In Context" and I was intrigued. But as they were from England and I had just missed them at Spaceland, I knew they wouldn't be back for a while, so I filed them in the back of my head as a band to get back to, later.

 

Fast forward to now, and I research some recent interviews and find they've been on haitus for a couple of years. Formed in 2005 by brothers, Peter and David Brewis and Andrew Moore, they released two albums, the self-titled Field Music and Tones of Town, which I picked up a couple of weeks ago and flipped over. Solid English indie pop with an arsenal of musical influences, a compelling creative edge and intelligent lyrics. I looked forward to the new album.

After taking time to work on solo projects and to reassess the direction they want Field Music to take, Peter Brewis and David Brewis (photo at right by Ian West) are now joined by Ian Black and Kev Dosdale and have released the 20-song Field Music (Measure) to coincide with a short world tour. Purposely exploring the double album format, they were inspired by Fleetwood Mac's Tusk and Pink Floyd's The Wall, yet wanted to avoid any boring excess that can come with the format. To try to breathe new life into it. Personally, I don't find any of Tusk boring. But it also calls to mind The Beatles' White Album, which I consider a standard bearer of the double-album format and, for me, perhaps The Beatles crowning achievement.

Their aim was to reinvigorate the format of the conceptual double album and they have done a remarkable job. In the best classic English blues guitarist tradition of Eric Clapton, Traffic, Spencer Davis or Cream, as well as elements of American classicists like The Beach Boys, Jefferson Airplane or Fleetwood Mac, it's like a breathless tumble through the traditions of '60's and '70's rock, even '80's funk, but with a distinctly modern edge. An aquaintance told me they remind her of Television and Split Enz. The influences continue right through their own contemporaries like The Futureheads and Maximo Park, both bands I really like.

There's so much variety that the first time I played it each song kept adding to my positive assessment until I was ready to explode. Not that it sounds like two distinct albums, yet I think there is a definite act 1 and act 2. It seems like two sets of ten songs each.

 

Opening with bleary atmospheric tones, "In The Mirror", with it's discordant melody, introduces their slightly off-kilter melodies and sophisticated compositional skills. "Them That Do Nothing" is a perfect pop song that bears repeat listenings. The overlay of orchestral embellishments gives the music occasional grandiloquent sweep. "Effortlessly" continues in the straight out rock tradition, but "Clear Water" explores the angular terrain that Yes covers. Followed by one of my favorite cuts, "Lights Up" which has the low end bass of a Pinback song and a similar woozy sway. Great piano work must be mentioned as well. Part one end with the quietly sad "You and I".

 

The eleventh cut on the CD, "The Rest Is Noise" introduces the more experimental side of the band and is also like the first song of a new record. Bursting with fresh energy it leads to the most challenging section of the record. The remainder of the CD follows an even more non-linear style. A song can begin as chamber pop and then break out into wall-of-rock dimensions easily with a cascade of styles tumbling, one over the other, keeping the music from ever being predictable or seeming repetitious, but still engaging enough to keep you wanting more.

 

This CD had me from the very first playing and it has taken over. It's still the only thing I want to hear right now, and has even made it difficult to leave the house to go see a show. It's an album of such astonishing variety, technical virtuosity, profound beauty, and deep emotion, I can only grasp part of it's meaning so far, and may not fully comprehend it for years to come. Many of my favorite '60's albums I'm still digesting to this day, and that seems to be the mark of a great album for me. Field Music (Measure) may go beyond a best of year list and belong on a best of decade list... already. When Field Music return to L.A. to play at Bootleg Theatre on March 27, I'll be there.