NO-CORE blog

The last time I wrote something about the infamous 4-drummer/vocalist band Foot Village, I said that they reminded me of one of those weekend project bands that would normally play one show and be forgotten. Somehow or other I had in fact forgotten that I actually WAS in a percussion-and-vocals-only band called The Old Joe Smiths. It was formed on a weekend and did play exactly one show.

But wait, this is not one of those self-absorbed reviews where I just talk about me, I have a point about Foot Village. As soon as the Old Joe Smiths band concept was born, it immediately expanded to include multiple odd percussion instruments, including glass bottles with varying amounts of water to make a crude xylophone. Foot Village on the other hand, has a much stronger purity of vision. If someone tells you that a band is made of 4 drummer/vocalists, you might picture some kind of world music group with bongos, bells, vocal harmonies, etc. Heck, even other multi-drummer noise-rock groups like Aa or current Boredoms go in for this stuff.

Foot Village? None of that. Four matching rock drum kits. Kick, tom, snare, hi-hat, crash. Times four. Pounding and screaming. That’s what you get. They allow themselves exactly one additional “instrument” – the megaphone. I suspect the tone in “Death of the Endless” is megaphone feedback and the sirens in “National Jamthum” and “Chicken & Cheese 2″ are a default sound created by the same megaphone. In addition to these restrictions, Foot Village also operate within an established concept – they are building their own nation. This album, “Anti-Magic,” is vaguely about their first war, with the forces of mysticism and magic. The album art shows Foot Village tribe members – all nude – fighting wizard types with sticks, spears, and bombs. I thought this concept might be about the battle between superstition and rationalism, but if so it comes across vague and playful, not political.

You might think the tight restrictions would make things boring, but no. It just forces Foot Village to push the creativity of their composition and interaction. There is one small deviation from this plan, the half-way point track “Grace’s Death” which is mostly vocal, then veers into some kind of remixed/electronic segment. A nice little break, then back to the drums. Also, the album closes with the track ”Chicken & Cheese 2,” which turns into a relay race of rad underground bands covering the song, one after the other. The results are extremely varied and it’s a super-fun way to close things out. In fact, each edition of the album: CD, vinyl, cassette, and digital – has a different collection of bands doing the covers.

One last thought: It is really hard to capture multiple drums in a recording. I don’t know if it always sounds like there are 4 drum kits here, but it almost always sounds like there’s more than one. The drum-layering works best when there are lots of fast rolls going on, like those in “Reggae War Zone.” The “heavy” all-together pounding moments sound much more impressive in a live setting, which is really how you ought to experience Foot Village. Still, none of that changes the fact that this is a great and super-entertaining album. (But maybe they should put out a Dolby 5.1 version too).

Free mp3 sample download: Foot Village – Reggae War Zone

Foot Village website
Foot Village on last.fm
album can be bought here

Do you ever have those “objective moments” where you suddenly take a step back and see yourself as someone else would right then? This album gave me a few of those, where I would flash back to high school and one of my parents stepping into my bedroom while I’m listening to some of my music. How would this sound to them as they walked into the middle of it? Without a doubt, the bulk of this album would elicit a “What in the world are you listening to? Is this music?!”

This is a quality that I love about Foot Village, the willingness to be, in many ways, completely absurd. This band of 4 drummer/shouters and no other instruments is like one of those crazy weekend concept bands that might form and play one show and be forgotten because it was ridiculous to begin with. Well, that’s what I would do on weekends. In fact, I feel like I’ve been in several bands something like Foot Village, but none of them have been carried to the point that FV have, with national and international tours and several albums, for which I wholeheartedly support them and cheer them on. At the same time, I often think “I can’t believe anyone besides me likes this band!” Even the band themselves apparently have these “objective moments” because at the very end of the track “Race Till the End of Food” one of the band members says “I cannot believe this is our song.”

That track, as well as a few others here, actually takes the form of a comedy sketch, with a character called “Hungee Bear” and other forest creatures having a race, till the end of food apparently. After a “ready, set, go,” the bulk of the 10-minute track is a cacophony of drum flailing, with the levels way in the red and sounding like total square-wave harsh noise. Again, a willingness to be completely absurd.

This is a b-side collection (well, actually compiling non-album tracks from a variety of splits and limited releases, but I call these b-side collections), and b-side albums are almost always my favorite albums by bands. The Jesus & Mary Chain’s “Barbed Wire Kisses,” Royal Trux’s “Singles Live Unreleased.” You just get a much wider variety of music for your money. And here we get some rougher early material, some remixes, some singles, and a couple more noise-based experimental tracks. The “singles” – which I think portray Foot Village doing what they do best, are my favorites, like “Clubtraxxx I-III” and “Bones.” The remixes are my least favorite because they largely just sound like an original song by the “remixer” which samples Foot Village. “Crow Call” sounds like an Anavan song with Foot Village vocals and “The Power of HEALTH” largely sounds like a remix of the band HEALTH (which I’m guessing it also is) with a few Foot Village drums and vocals. On the other hand, the Jason Forrest remix of “Narc Party” keeps most of the elements of the original in place, and the track “3840 Ticks of the Soul” with Captain Ahab seems like it’s genuinely some kind of remixing of the original.

This album seems to put the tracks in chronological order, with the remixes mostly stacked at the end, and that seems like a weird way to listen to me. I prefer the songs mixed up like those previously mentioned b-side examples. But hey, that’s what this shuffle function is for I guess. In fact, I shuffled the album just now and got a playlist I like so much, I think I’m going to edit the mp3 tags and make this my new official listening order! That “Narc Party” remix came first, and the “Race Till the end of food” was placed last, which works perfectly. In case you want to do the same, here’s my recommended listening order:

1. Narc Party (Jason Forrest Remix)
2. Chicken and Cheese 2
3. Napaj
4. Follow Your Heart (Featuring Eco Morti)
5. Iceland
6. Clubtraxxx I-III
7. The Power of HEALTH (Captain Ahab Remix)
8. Comparable Love in the Time of development
9. Crow Call (Anavan Remix)
10. 3840 Ticks of the Soul (Featuring Captain Ahab)
11. Psychic Connection
12. 420 (National Holiday)
13. Bones
14. Race Till the End of Food

CD available from Gilgongo Records

Foot Village on Last.fm
Foot Village on MySpace
http://www.gilgongorecords.com