Lee’s Listening Stack – The Fling – ‘When the Madhouses Appear’
The Fling
When the Madhouses Appear
Dangerbird
Hailing from Long Beach, California, the Fling is an imaginative combo that regurgitates a number of familiar influences – folk, psychedelic, retro/roots – and recycles them into a musical brew they can conveniently claim as their own. Their initial offering, When the Madhouses Appear, provides a promising introduction, one that bodes well for future entries. For now anyway, the new album shows the band’s agility in balancing mood and melancholia and harvesting an intriguing sound in the process.
While various ethereal effects in the form of distorted guitars and cosmic cacophony account for the stratified textures that inhabit their sound, the music is anchored by the Fling’s three-part harmonies which frequently add an Abbey Road kind of effect — dreamy at times and yet also strangely soothing. That’s particularly true on songs such as “Cold Control” and “Dry the Rain” which bear an overload of psychedelic suggestion. It’s intriguing no doubt, but the supple sway of “Nothing Makes Sense,” the acoustic guitars of “Elinor” and “Devil’s Man,” and the lazy drift of “Day I Find” prove equally effective. Dustin Lovelis (guitars, vocals), Graham Lovelis (bass, vocals), Justin Roeland (guitars, keys, vocals), and Justin Ivey (drums) seem to have found an effective mesh and the confidence that Dustin, Justin, Justin and Graham display so early on indicates they’re about to become major alt contenders. Consider this Fling to be a fling well worth engaging in. – Lee Zimmerman
Lee Zimmerman is a contributor to a variety of publications, including Blurt, M Music & Musicians, New Times, Goldmine and Amplifier
This review appears courtesy of Amplifier, 50,000 Watts of Non-Stop Indie Rock http://amplifiermagazine.blogspot.com/