Okay, this one\u2019s a bit personal. As I was writing my first book, Keeping It Tight In The Old Dominion: A History Of Virginia Rock Music<\/i>, I found out about this little band from Richmond that never quite made it. It was the mid \u201890s and the Smashing Pumpkins was the biggest thing since Wham! and James Iha and D\u2019arcy were given the autonomy to start their own record label under the auspices of Polygram. Aside from signing friends like Chainsaw Kittens and the Frogs, they also signed a few upstarts, including Phoenix Thunderstone and Fulflej. The latter band, a trio that mixed hip-hop with indie rock, was quite different.<\/p>\n
From the outset, one is not quite sure what to make of this band. \u201cQuite Like This\u201d has a very definitive shoegaze influence, though not as deep as say, Slowdive. Jason Greschke\u2019s vocals are a little suspect as they veer from song to song. On this one, his vocals come across a bit childish, not really matching with the musicianship. \u201cWork In This Universe\u201d which was the main single and video at the time, comes across as a lo-fi indie rock track, right down to the drumming. Greschke\u2019s vocals work better here but the song doesn\u2019t really do much for me; it never really has.<\/p>\n
\u201cSenselessness\u201d is an interesting track with great music that finds the whole band firing on all cylinders, but the lyrics leave a little bit to be desired. \u201cParallel To Gravity\u201d is one of my favorites here, a raving little number that really builds the overall energy. It\u2019s just a great song and one that should get multiple repeats.<\/p>\n
\u201cMicrowave\u201d is quite an interesting track. Released on an EP in a different version prior to this album\u2019s release, this version has Greschke\u2019s vocals sounding like a four or five year old kid. His decision to do this was quite odd to the other members of the band, particularly since he had never performed the song like this before or since. It definitely catches the listener\u2019s ear and, in my case, became quite the earworm. The song is weird enough, with surf guitar, cello, and some punk elements in one damn song, but the combination of the vocals on top just makes the song one that needs to be heard over and over to get the whole weird vibe of the thing. <\/p>\n
Then there\u2019s \u201cSilver,\u201d which contains some guitar\/cello interplay with splashes of piano thrown in. It\u2019s definitely quirky, but it surprisingly works and is one of the more interesting tracks here. There are a few songs that go on a bit long, but I think that has to do with the shoegaze influence. Only one of them, \u201cWorms To Dogs\u201d works well, both musically and lyrically. The rest are a hard pass. <\/p>\n
Overall, this is one of the truly oddest records I\u2019ve come across during my love affair with \u201890s alternative rock. This record has truly got a bit of everything, including a hidden track where the frontman raps and spins the wheels of steel. Truly different but ultimately, the weirdness helps make it an interesting disc, one that you want to check out again to make sure that you\u2019re able to catch up with everything you might have missed. This disc has been out of print for years and is not even available digitally. Maybe it\u2019s time for whoever owns this record now to actually do something with it: make it available to the public at large so that they can truly appreciate the musical weirdness that is Fulflej.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":91,"featured_media":33695,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[10302],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-45516","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-fulflej","rating-rating-b"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/45516","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/91"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45516"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/45516\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33695"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45516"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=45516"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=45516"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}