Uninhabit (Offseason Records)
Fond of Tigers
Released October 2016
DownBeat Five-Star Review
YouTube:
https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=NOr-KaIMSEI&list=OLAK5uy_k3JOk1AwmsfWCPB1xcLzUvH2oRo-Gumyk
Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/album/0LeuNpKhwZ9NfclWBd4P5t?si=cW7_jzPrSHWI4MxrsBiFAQ
About:
On their fourth studio album, Uninhabit, band leader Stephen Lyons’ understated, textural vocals work their way into two of the tracks (“Wonder What We’re Whispering For” and “Everything Moves”), while some of the group’s use of out-and-out chaos is more understated and subsumed. But don’t mistake this as a mellow, Fond of Tigers album: there are moments in “Heartwarmongering No. 4” that would pair well with some of cinema’s most terrifying scenes, the final movement of “Everything Moves” is cathartically apocalyptic, and “Cause B” is certainly one of the most bewildering and intense songs in the Tigers catalogue. The album also explores some darkly pulsing grooves and atomized abstraction along the way. As Herohill (Rest in Peace) has said, with Fond of Tigers “the reward is in the total experience. The moments of serenity and tradition spliced into collages of chaos and urgency are as captivating as they are conflicting and certainly better heard than read.”
Sometimes referred as a “super group” due to the various affiliations with other projects (Tanya Tagaq, Dan Mangan, Destroyer, etc.) the band actually predates any of those collaborations, and has stridently maintained the same seven member lineup, despite the various obstacles the last decade has thrown at them. The group often refers to the music as “the beast” …something outside and beyond the seven humans that serve its strange needs. There is a power in that setting aside of individuality and ego in the service of something larger and far stranger than one’s self.
Track Listing:
1. Heartwarmongering, No. 4 8:36
2. Wonder What We’re Whispering For 7:12
3. Uninhabit 8:44
4. Cause B 6:40
5. Everything Moves 7:35
Personnel:
Stephen Lyons: guitar, vocals, percussion, electroncs
Morgan McDonald: keyboards
JP Carter: trumpet, electronics
Dan Gaucher: drums
Skye Brooks: drums
Shanto Acharia: bass
Jesse Zubot: violin, electronics, mixing
Recorded at Rain City Recorders in Vancouver, BC
Additional recording at The Bunker, Britannia Beach, BC.
Produced by Stephen Lyons and Jesse Zubot.
Photography by Craig Sinclair
Review:
Vancouver’s Fond of Tigers’ vinyl release Uninhabit while uncategorizable, is a brilliant and beautifully intense release. The album features innovative writing and improvisation sourced from avant-rock, free improvisation and art music. The JUNO-winning supergroup is repeatedly described as “post-everything.” Led by captivating guitarist/vocalist Stephen Lyons, the band merges edgy textures and extended instrumental effects into groovy hipster oneness. Pure bliss.
Kerilie McDowall (DownBeat)
