Falsense: ‘Death of a Hidden Influence’ [Review]
Fiction
All it took was a simple slip of the tongue, and vast armies instantly materialised, prepared and poised, ready for war. Breath became artillery; words, ammunition. The ground shook and shuddered with each perfectly synchronised step as hundred-foot-tall soldiers stomped determinedly across a kaleidoscopic, constantly shifting landscape.
Somehow the chaos congealed into simple, pointed sentences. Initial statements were precise and powerful, their force the result of months of obsessive planning. But anger inevitably clouded the leaders’ judgement. Before long, disruption reigned again. Scattered shots were fired at mistakes and delusions, only to ricochet wildly into the faces of friends and foes alike. Knives were drawn, bayonets torn from rifle muzzles and wielded uncertainly, as if the cold steel were an alien substance. Keen blades were forced at random into limbs, organs, and extremities. Oceans of blood were spilled, left to soak into quicksand.
Both armies became entrenched in what appeared, at first, to be safe ground. Only when it was too late did they realise what they had fought so viciously to achieve. Stalemate – punctuated in places by passing, half-hearted pot-shots. Trumpets sounded imaginary charges, retreats, and surrenders. This continued for several years, while slowly each pawn and arch manipulator succumbed to somnambulism.
Of all the players on the field, only one remained vividly awake. Wounded, aggrieved, but awake. As he lay for the thousandth night under a sky riddled with static discharges and incomprehensible hieroglyphics, his moment of enlightenment arrived. He closed his eyes…
Opinion
I reviewed this EP for the Music Industry eXchange (MIX) back in March. Sadly the MIX is now deceased, but I still stand by what I said back then. And here it is:
When you’ve been listening to and obsessing over music for as long as I have, it’s easy to assume that you’ve heard everything the world has to offer. It’s easy to believe that every new act out there is nothing more than a carbon copy of some done-to-death, hopelessly clichéd dinosaur band from decades past. It’s easy to believe that originality is dead.
Fortunately, if you believe this, you are wrong.
Falsense is one quarter of the epic Scratch Latin, whose Sikth-meets-the-Sex-Pistols alt-rock insanity has already been hailed for its awesomeness here at the MIX. Often, the kind of madness unleashed by the likes of Scratch Latin can be attributed to the efforts of a collective, multi-musician melting pot. But on ‘Death of a Hidden Influence’, the Dillinger-tinged EP let loose into the frothing planet-spanning data ocean that is the Internet, you should remember that this is the brainchild of just one man. Preferably, however, you should remember this after a solid, one-hundred-percent focussed listen to the damn thing. It’s short, it’s punchy, it’s batshit crazy, it’ll make your neighbours hate you if you turn it up loud enough, but most of all, despite its complexity and unorthodox arrangements, it just works. There’s nothing superfluous on ‘Death of a Hidden Influence’ – no gratuitously extended wank sessions, no running times above four minutes, just distilled awesomeness available for you to stick straight in your ears via the link below. This is the kind of music your auditory cortex has been crying out to experience since the day you became cognizant.
Press play, and wake up. You’ll be glad you did.
Links
Listen to and buy Death of a Hidden Influence at: http://falsense.bandcamp.com/
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