FAR CORNER - FAR CORNER - 2004

Stravinsky and Bartok as well as several prog bands from the 70'... The main influences of this new quartett from Milwaukee (Wisconsin) sound supremely promising. Well, on the one hand it seems to be surprising that a young band wants to create a mixture of contemporary chamber music and rock, but on the other hand you have to admit, that several bands showed how awesome this kind of music could be; Present and Univers Zero, just to name two of them. These two bands are also the ones with the stongest resemblances to FAR CORNER. But the heavy metal like cello, the jazzy piano and the roaring hammond impart their music a very personal touch...and suddenly it seems as if the music has no similarities to anyone at all. So Univers Zero and Present are just a kind of benchmark, nothing really assimilable.

FAR CORNER's self titled debut album exceeds the aforementioned expectations with it's interesting style, it's vivaciousness and the well-balanced mixture of compositions and improvised music. Humming bass, sophisticated drumming, jazzy and complex keyboards, mostly piano and measured cello which prevalently degenerates into boisterous and distorted kind of shredding. Maybe somehow comparable to the cello known from Höyry-Kone or Alamaailman Vasarat (two awesome bands btw). All songs seem to be highlights just because they are nearly of the same quality. Nevertheless, I have my favorites which include the opening track "Silly Whim" (download the sample), the quite heavy "With one swipe of it's mighty paw", the very jazzy "The turning" and the closing longtrack "Fiction". The reason for giving 4 Stars instead of 5 is following: Even though all tracks are highlights and not one song falls short, I have to admit that the album on the whole, during more than 70 minutes, can sometimes be described as lengthy. A little more alternation and FAR CORNER's debut would have been a true masterpiece.

I can just repeat my words from the bio, If you like zheul, so called chamber rock with jazzy piano and don't mind a sometimes quite heavy, distorted cello you should check out FAR CORNER immediately. But you should also check them out if you like to listen to modern music with a crazy touch and interesting mixture of styles. Certainly highly recommended!
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