Fischerspooner has been off the radar since 2005’s Odyssey, having to endure what so many musicians before them have when business and the pleasure of making music just don’t mix. But fans will be joyous to see that Warren Fischer and Casey Spooner have returned with even more dramatic art, sounds and color.
Without even listening to Track 1 of Entertainment, the new release on the duo’s own imprint, FS Studios, the theatric fashion ensemble featured in the CD cover (and fold-out poster in the liner insert) is proof of what’s to come. We’re talking Japan Shogun ala Alexander McQueen meets Lite Brite Neon meets 20’s barbershop quartet headwear. Fabulous!
When listening to artists that use samples and beats in just the right way, I can’t help but be taken on a visual journey. On Entertainment, a fitting name indeed, the journey glides to the galaxy on “To the Moon” via The Great Space Coaster TV show, as constellations dance and play. Then it’s off to “Danse en France” for a story telling session that’s liken to The Orb’s “Little Fluffy Clouds,” but even more spacey and quirky.
The most recent James Bond movies have taken a different turn from past chapters, but if the Hollywood folks were take off where Duran Duran and “View To A Kill” left off, they would need to look no further than “Infidels of the World Unite.” Espionage and covert operations would have a much better sense of rhythm.
Fans of their previous work will immediately recognize the simmering, bubbling beat on “Money Can’t Dance,” sleeved with a quite fitting economic and cultural lyrical theme that we can sing a long to without even knowing the words. “We’ve somehow spent too much time staying in line / With screwball attitudes on our minds / We’ve run off the track…Just get on up like I know you can / ‘Cause currency can only do so much / And it certainly can’t dance.” Amen to that.
That theme continues on “In A Modern World,” but this time they pulled in the wonderful, the talented, Ann Magnusson (where has she been?!) to summon the masses with her sultry whisper “There’s so many of them / But there’s so many of us too / Call everybody you know / Text everybody you know / Tell them to meet us up on top of the walls.”
Me, I’ll be meeting close to everyone I know at the Fischerspooner show this Monday, May 18 at the Ogden. Having missed their appearance in Boulder years back, and after listening to Entertainment numerous, numerous times, AND seeing pics my friend Jennifer took of their Atlanta show, I can’t tell you how excited I am for this one. See you there.
