Fantasy Black Channel
Encyclopedia
Fantasy Black Channel is the debut studio album by British dance-punk
band Late of the Pier
. It was released on 30 July 2008 in Japan through Toshiba EMI and on 4 August 2008 in the British Isles on Parlophone
, the band's primary label. Five tracks had already been released as singles
in the United Kingdom: "Bathroom Gurgle", "The Bears Are Coming", "Space and the Woods
" and "Focker
" as a double A-side, and "Heartbeat
". The record peaked at number 28 on the UK Albums Chart
, but failed to chart in the United States.
The album was recorded in frontman Sam Eastgate's bedroom in Castle Donington
, England, and at several locations in London. It went through a fractured creative process that lasted for more than two years. It was eventually produced by Eastgate and DJ Erol Alkan
between 2007 and 2008. Fantasy Black Channel does not contain a unifying musical or lyrical theme; rather, it is a collage
of all the ideas, genres, and studio effects that fascinated the band members and Alkan, especially during live recording sessions. The record was very well received by critics. It was often treated as one of the best British albums of 2008 because of its eclecticism and spirit of invention.
music of British ensemble The Prodigy
and the grunge music
of American band Nirvana
. They soon branched out into listening to diverse genres from the last 40 years of music, including Motown and soul
. Potter has treated their conception of Fantasy Black Channel as a reaction to "mediocre, complacent indie-schmindie bands who find a sound and stick to it; whose songs sound exactly the same", while lead writer and composer Eastgate has pointed out that they wanted to "take people past their own limits". The nascent recording stages took place in Eastgate's bedroom, where unconventional time signatures and experimental chords
were performed because, at the time, no band member could play an instrument properly.
Late of the Pier started using the album working title
Interesting Adventure in 2006 after practising in Eastgate's bedroom for about a year and previewed their new material at the Liars Club in Nottingham. After receiving contract offers from Parlophone and Atlantic Records
, the band members signed to Parlophone because the label gave them total autonomy over the recording process without pressuring them to be commercially successful immediately. The record deal was followed by the recording of an EP titled Zarcorp Demo
, from which a demo
single, "Space and the Woods", was released in March 2007. Eastgate has claimed that the band members were influenced by the music of the 1980s
during these formative stages of Fantasy Black Channel even though none of them were born before 1986.
In late 2007, Late of the Pier formally met renowned DJ Erol Alkan after seeing him play a set at the Liars Club. Alkan called them "THE most exciting band around" and offered the band members help in the recording process of Fantasy Black Channel. They accepted and made him producer for the album because of the immediate rapport that developed between the two parties. Dawson has explained the choice of producer by suggesting that Alkan is famous for playing broad genres of music and that he understands the properties and crossover of dance
and guitar music. Alkan fully embraced the band members' ideas and immediately understood what they were trying to achieve. "Bathroom Gurgle" was recorded by the new collaboration and was released as a limited edition single in September 2007.
The production process for Fantasy Black Channel gathered pace around December 2007. Late of the Pier usually proceeded by taking bedroom recordings into the studio, where they were refined by Alkan into "a more presentable package". They tried unconventional techniques in the style of avant garde producer Joe Meek
during the live studio recording sessions, including stamping in baths and reamping guitars through air vents. When tracks were mixed
after being recorded, the band members, Alkan, and engineer Jimmy Robertson worked in tandem and unanimously decided when a track had finished undergoing the studio effects process. No songs changed after this point, even when one of the parties had further ideas. At the time, in an interview with the band, Stuart Turnbull of the BBC Collective indicated that Alkan managed to "channel Late of the Pier's sonic attack into something more focused yet still undeniably different".
UK tour during the month of February, in which they previewed new material. "The Bears Are Coming" was released as a vinyl single in March 2008. The band toured until the end of April 2008 to promote another single—a double A-side containing a reworked "Space and the Woods" and "Focker"—from the as-yet-unreleased Fantasy Black Channel. Studio work with Alkan restarted in May 2008 to put the finishing touches on the album; the final version was christened as "a compilation of hits" and "anti-pop pop
". The album was recorded during six months in different studios and the band members have admitted that the variety in venues partially explains why it sounds disjointed. The idea of having a single 45-minute track instead of a track list of songs was mooted at the end of May 2008, but was not followed through.
Fantasy Black Channels track listing and UK CD release date of 11 August 2008 were confirmed on 11 June. Faley has claimed that "the album fell into place itself, like the songs basically told us where they wanted to go on the album". Late of the Pier picked the record's name at random after first contemplating using Peggy Patch and Her Sequenced Dress. The cover art
was designed by a friend of the band members from Brighton
, Jon Bergman. A final EP containing material already released in 2007 and 2008, Echoclistel Lambietroy, was released in July 2008 as part of the marketing campaign for the forthcoming album. Potter has summed the record's conception by concluding, "I think in the three years to build up to the album, we never actually thought of a track list, and we never really kind of considered the fact that it should sound like an album. I think we recorded all the songs and then they were there and it was like, 'Oh, we have to kind of stitch this together and make it sound like one piece.'"
. It took Eastgate a long time to describe how he was feeling "in a way that sounded original" for such a common theme in pop music. The lyrics in the chorus are about the first time Late of the Pier drove to London and got lost. "Space and the Woods" tries to weigh up what is more important: a person or an inanimate object, or an absence of anything, while "The Bears Are Coming" concerns "a silent threat". The idea for the lyric "A heartbeat, a flicker, a line" in "Heartbeat" came to Eastgate while recording the song and hearing its time signature always changing.
The lyricist cannot remember writing "White Snake" and did not know there was a band of the same name
in existence. "Focker" evolved out of a demo, called "6/8 Focker", Eastgate sang through a guitar amp with initially indecipherable lyrics. "The Enemy Are the Future" gets its name from a sentence in a promotional leaflet for the indie rock
band The Enemy
, who Late of the Pier supported at a few gigs. Eastgate has explained that for "Mad Dogs and Englishmen" he randomly "shouted lots of short phrases" and then tried to make sense of what he said. The process led to stylised lines like "Falling over aeroplanes and wanting to be a derelict".
short which contains seven layers of electric guitar run through a Zoom 506 bass guitar pedal. "Broken" was conceived during a jam session between Eastgate's guitar riff
s and Dawson's drumming, while a demo of "Space and the Woods" similar to the Nirvana song "All Apologies
" was reworked and remixed in the studio. Eastgate credits Storm Mortimer, who used to drive Late of the Pier around London, as the muse for "The Bears Are Coming". She often sang impromptu and the frontman eventually borrowed a page of her songs and added an afrobeat
-inspired rhythm to it. Eastgate and Dawson wanted to create a track that evoked the idea of "coming out of the jungle" and credit varied musical acts like Slagsmålsklubben
, Prince
, The Beatles
, Mr Flash, FrYars, and Lutricia McNeal
as inspiration.
"Random Firl" was one of Alkan's favourites and he persuaded Late of the Pier to re-record it like a classical
piece of music rather than in a rock-oriented way. The vocal harmonies at the end of the song were added during one of the last days of recording when the pressure to complete the album was high. "Heartbeat" is based on an old acid house
demo track that Eastgate created during his childhood using a Roland TB-303
electronic synthesiser-sequencer
. The track features complex time signature progressions and a guitar solo
played by Potter on the sampler
at the end. "Whitesnake" was inspired by the music of Devo
, Roxy Music
, and Dandi Wind
, while "VW" is based on a 2001 demo recorded in Eastgate's attic. In the studio, Late of the Pier hired brass players to perform the horn section
s and create new scales. Once the instrumentals were recorded, the band members purposefully decided to mix their own playing lower in certain sections of the song so that listeners could hear the horns
more clearly.
"Focker" was created using a looped riff from "6/8 Focker". Eastgate then conceived a drum solo and remixed and rearranged the last 20 seconds of the song. "The Enemy Are the Future" was created during a hungover jam session, where all band members played individually and not in tandem. Dawson performed around 40 different beats one after another all in different timings. The session was recorded using a tape player and a track was moulded in the studio. Four different endings were recorded and three were spliced together at the end. "Mad Dogs and Englishmen", whose riff is based on an old French samba
song, was borne out of an interplay between Eastgate on the guitar and Faley on the bass. The last track on the album, "Bathroom Gurgle", includes "a squelchy grind of the riff" purpose-built for the Liars Club audience during the band's first ever gigs. Eastgate has explained, "I had these two themes, which looped round on each other which I sang very exasperated Annie Lennox
style vocals over." The fast tempo
of the first half of the song was juxtaposed against a section of "slow drama".
reports a normalised
rating of 81% based on 18 critical reviews. Allmusic's K. Ross Hoffman described the album as "glorious and galvanising" and labelled it "a convoluted construction crammed with so many immediately gratifying moments that it takes multiple listens to extricate them all". John Burgess of The Guardian
explained that a new favourite song, riff, or wayward moment can be found every time that the album is listened to. Tim Chester of NME
concluded, "It takes a certain kind of mind to make this. While others whinge about living and dying in cul-de-sac
towns shackled by cul-de-sac imaginations, LOTP’s vision is housed on Dubai
's 'The World
' island-creation project."
Some reviewers classified Fantasy Black Channel into the British New Rave genre and musical scene. Others claimed that they could hear impressions of Roxy Music frontman Bryan Ferry
and musician Gary Numan
in the recording. Pitchfork Media
's Adam Moerder commented that it contains several New Rave compositions which are aesthetically dubious. Chris Baynes of PopMatters
claimed that the band members "wear their influences pretty much inked onto their sleeves", but concluded that the album is exciting and excitable in equal measure. According to Late of the Pier, comparisons to Klaxons
and New Rave are the results of lazy journalism, especially for a scene the band has never been in. Eastgate has explained that musical influences are often subconscious, even though the band members tried not to listen to anything but their own work while recording the album. Nick Mitchell of The Skinny pointed out that the record is "an unrestrained, unclassifiable, unexpectedly triumphant romp through blaring influences and genres, from the 70s camp rock of Queen
and Bowie
to the primitive electronics
of Gary Numan, with echoes of 90s computer games and snatches of modern house
".
Fantasy Black Channel figured in several publications' end-of-year best album lists for 2008, notably, at number three by Clash
, at number five by FACT, and at number 18 by NME
. It was ranked at number 16 in the HMV Poll Of Polls for 2008, which aggregates the votes of prominent British critics to decide the commercial group's Album Of The Year. Earlier in 2008, Rory Carroll of Artrocker
claimed that the record would have been a late entrant for the Mercury Music Prize, and would have probably won the award, if nominations had been made in August rather than July 2008. Because of their work on the album, Late of the Pier received a nomination for Best New Band at the 2009 NME Awards
. Two tracks were also nominated: "Bathroom Gurgle" and "Heartbeat", in the Best Dancefloor Filler and Best Video categories respectively. In 2009, Clash placed Fantasy Black Channel at number 40 in its list of the 50 Greatest Albums, 2004–2009, while FACT included it at number 99 in its editorial staff list of the 100 Best: Albums of the Decade.
picture sleeve. It was released a week earlier than the CD version and had the following track changes:
The 2009 U.S. LP version was released concurrently with the CD version.
Additional musicians
Production
Artwork
The album's release history is as follows:
Singles
"—" denotes releases that did not chart.
Dance-punk
Dance-punk is a music genre that emerged in the late 1970s, and is closely associated with the post-punk and No Wave movements.-Predecessors:...
band Late of the Pier
Late of the Pier
Late of the Pier are a four-piece dance-punk band from Castle Donington, England, currently signed to Phantasy. Their debut album Fantasy Black Channel was released on 11 August 2008 by Parlophone produced by Erol Alkan.- History :...
. It was released on 30 July 2008 in Japan through Toshiba EMI and on 4 August 2008 in the British Isles on Parlophone
Parlophone
Parlophone is a record label that was founded in Germany in 1896 by the Carl Lindström Company as Parlophon. The British branch was formed in 1923 as "Parlophone" which developed a reputation in the 1920s as a leading jazz label. It was acquired in 1927 by the Columbia Graphophone Company which...
, the band's primary label. Five tracks had already been released as singles
Single (music)
In music, a single or record single is a type of release, typically a recording of fewer tracks than an LP or a CD. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats. In most cases, the single is a song that is released separately from an album, but it can still appear...
in the United Kingdom: "Bathroom Gurgle", "The Bears Are Coming", "Space and the Woods
Space and the Woods
"Space and the Woods" is a song released by UK band Late of the Pier on 5 March 2007. It was released on 500 limited edition 7" records.The single and b-side are different recordings to those that appeared on the Zarcorp Demo. Notably, "Heartbeat, Flicker, Line" was given a definite name,...
" and "Focker
Focker
"Focker" is a song by UK band Late of the Pier, released on May 19, 2008 as a double a-side with Space And The Woods.Focker appears on Late of the Pier's debut album, Fantasy Black Channel.-Track listing:*7"...
" as a double A-side, and "Heartbeat
Heartbeat (Late of the Pier song)
"Heartbeat" is a song by British rock group Late of the Pier. It was released as a single on the 4 August 2008. It is the first Late of the Pier song to chart, coming in at number 98 in the UK Singles Chart. It is notable for its time signatures, alternating between 4/4 and 7/8 timing...
". The record peaked at number 28 on the UK Albums Chart
UK Albums Chart
The UK Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales in the United Kingdom. It is compiled every week by The Official Charts Company and broadcast on a Sunday on BBC Radio 1 , and published in Music Week magazine and on the OCC website .To qualify for the UK albums chart...
, but failed to chart in the United States.
The album was recorded in frontman Sam Eastgate's bedroom in Castle Donington
Castle Donington
Castle Donington is a village, with a population of around 7000 in the North West of Leicestershire, part of the Derby postcode area and on the edge of the National Forest. It is the closest town to East Midlands Airport.-Transport and housing:...
, England, and at several locations in London. It went through a fractured creative process that lasted for more than two years. It was eventually produced by Eastgate and DJ Erol Alkan
Erol Alkan
Erol Alkan is a London-based electro DJ of Turkish Cypriot descent.-DJ and club promoter:In 1993, Erol Alkan started DJing in various Indie nightclubs in London....
between 2007 and 2008. Fantasy Black Channel does not contain a unifying musical or lyrical theme; rather, it is a collage
Collage
A collage is a work of formal art, primarily in the visual arts, made from an assemblage of different forms, thus creating a new whole....
of all the ideas, genres, and studio effects that fascinated the band members and Alkan, especially during live recording sessions. The record was very well received by critics. It was often treated as one of the best British albums of 2008 because of its eclecticism and spirit of invention.
Origins and recording
Having officially formed a band under the name Late of the Pier in 2004, childhood friends Sam Eastgate, Andrew Faley, Sam Potter, and Ross Dawson initially developed the sound of their first album by listening to the alternative danceAlternative dance
Alternative dance or indie dance is a musical genre that mixes rock subgenres with electronic dance music...
music of British ensemble The Prodigy
The Prodigy
The Prodigy are an English electronic dance music group formed by Liam Howlett in 1990 in Braintree, Essex. Along with Fatboy Slim, The Chemical Brothers, and other acts, The Prodigy have been credited as pioneers of the big beat genre, which achieved mainstream popularity in the 1990s and 2000s...
and the grunge music
Grunge
Grunge is a subgenre of alternative rock that emerged during the mid-1980s in the American state of Washington, particularly in the Seattle area. Inspired by hardcore punk, heavy metal, and indie rock, grunge is generally characterized by heavily distorted electric guitars, contrasting song...
of American band Nirvana
Nirvana (band)
Nirvana was an American rock band that was formed by singer/guitarist Kurt Cobain and bassist Krist Novoselic in Aberdeen, Washington in 1987...
. They soon branched out into listening to diverse genres from the last 40 years of music, including Motown and soul
Soul music
Soul music is a music genre originating in the United States combining elements of gospel music and rhythm and blues. According to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, soul is "music that arose out of the black experience in America through the transmutation of gospel and rhythm & blues into a form of...
. Potter has treated their conception of Fantasy Black Channel as a reaction to "mediocre, complacent indie-schmindie bands who find a sound and stick to it; whose songs sound exactly the same", while lead writer and composer Eastgate has pointed out that they wanted to "take people past their own limits". The nascent recording stages took place in Eastgate's bedroom, where unconventional time signatures and experimental chords
Chord (music)
A chord in music is any harmonic set of two–three or more notes that is heard as if sounding simultaneously. These need not actually be played together: arpeggios and broken chords may for many practical and theoretical purposes be understood as chords...
were performed because, at the time, no band member could play an instrument properly.
Late of the Pier started using the album working title
Working title
A working title, sometimes called a production title, is the temporary name of a product or project used during its development, usually used in filmmaking, television production, novel, video game, or music album.-Purpose:...
Interesting Adventure in 2006 after practising in Eastgate's bedroom for about a year and previewed their new material at the Liars Club in Nottingham. After receiving contract offers from Parlophone and Atlantic Records
Atlantic Records
Atlantic Records is an American record label best known for its many recordings of rhythm and blues, rock and roll, and jazz...
, the band members signed to Parlophone because the label gave them total autonomy over the recording process without pressuring them to be commercially successful immediately. The record deal was followed by the recording of an EP titled Zarcorp Demo
Zarcorp Demo
Zarcorp Demo is the debut EP by Indie band Late of the Pier. It contains demos of tracks which later were included on the album Fantasy Black Channel...
, from which a demo
Demo (music)
A demo version or demo of a song is one recorded for reference rather than for release. A demo is a way for a musician to approximate their ideas on tape or disc, and provide an example of those ideas to record labels, producers or other artists...
single, "Space and the Woods", was released in March 2007. Eastgate has claimed that the band members were influenced by the music of the 1980s
1980s in music
For music from a year in the 1980s, go to 80 | 81 | 82 | 83 | 84 | 85 | 86 | 87 | 88 | 89For a history of music in all times, see Timeline of musical events....
during these formative stages of Fantasy Black Channel even though none of them were born before 1986.
In late 2007, Late of the Pier formally met renowned DJ Erol Alkan after seeing him play a set at the Liars Club. Alkan called them "THE most exciting band around" and offered the band members help in the recording process of Fantasy Black Channel. They accepted and made him producer for the album because of the immediate rapport that developed between the two parties. Dawson has explained the choice of producer by suggesting that Alkan is famous for playing broad genres of music and that he understands the properties and crossover of dance
Dance music
Dance music is music composed specifically to facilitate or accompany dancing. It can be either a whole musical piece or part of a larger musical arrangement...
and guitar music. Alkan fully embraced the band members' ideas and immediately understood what they were trying to achieve. "Bathroom Gurgle" was recorded by the new collaboration and was released as a limited edition single in September 2007.
The production process for Fantasy Black Channel gathered pace around December 2007. Late of the Pier usually proceeded by taking bedroom recordings into the studio, where they were refined by Alkan into "a more presentable package". They tried unconventional techniques in the style of avant garde producer Joe Meek
Joe Meek
Robert George "Joe" Meek was a pioneering English record producer and songwriter....
during the live studio recording sessions, including stamping in baths and reamping guitars through air vents. When tracks were mixed
Audio mixing (recorded music)
In audio recording, audio mixing is the process by which multiple recorded sounds are combined into one or more channels, most commonly two-channel stereo. In the process, the source signals' level, frequency content, dynamics, and panoramic position are manipulated and effects such as reverb may...
after being recorded, the band members, Alkan, and engineer Jimmy Robertson worked in tandem and unanimously decided when a track had finished undergoing the studio effects process. No songs changed after this point, even when one of the parties had further ideas. At the time, in an interview with the band, Stuart Turnbull of the BBC Collective indicated that Alkan managed to "channel Late of the Pier's sonic attack into something more focused yet still undeniably different".
Promotion and release
The record was nearly completed by the end of January 2008. Late of the Pier stopped recording to embark on a headliningHeadliner
A headliner is a composite material that is adhered to the inside roof of automobiles or yachts. It typically consists of a face fabric with nonwoven or foam backing. Headliners consist of multilayered composite materials that bring together multiple functionalities, including the requested look,...
UK tour during the month of February, in which they previewed new material. "The Bears Are Coming" was released as a vinyl single in March 2008. The band toured until the end of April 2008 to promote another single—a double A-side containing a reworked "Space and the Woods" and "Focker"—from the as-yet-unreleased Fantasy Black Channel. Studio work with Alkan restarted in May 2008 to put the finishing touches on the album; the final version was christened as "a compilation of hits" and "anti-pop pop
Pop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...
". The album was recorded during six months in different studios and the band members have admitted that the variety in venues partially explains why it sounds disjointed. The idea of having a single 45-minute track instead of a track list of songs was mooted at the end of May 2008, but was not followed through.
Fantasy Black Channels track listing and UK CD release date of 11 August 2008 were confirmed on 11 June. Faley has claimed that "the album fell into place itself, like the songs basically told us where they wanted to go on the album". Late of the Pier picked the record's name at random after first contemplating using Peggy Patch and Her Sequenced Dress. The cover art
Cover art
Cover art is the illustration or photograph on the outside of a published product such as a book , magazine, comic book, video game , DVD, CD, videotape, or music album. The art has a primarily commercial function, i.e...
was designed by a friend of the band members from Brighton
Brighton
Brighton is the major part of the city of Brighton and Hove in East Sussex, England on the south coast of Great Britain...
, Jon Bergman. A final EP containing material already released in 2007 and 2008, Echoclistel Lambietroy, was released in July 2008 as part of the marketing campaign for the forthcoming album. Potter has summed the record's conception by concluding, "I think in the three years to build up to the album, we never actually thought of a track list, and we never really kind of considered the fact that it should sound like an album. I think we recorded all the songs and then they were there and it was like, 'Oh, we have to kind of stitch this together and make it sound like one piece.'"
Lyrics
The writing process for Fantasy Black Channel was largely unplanned. The verses of "Broken" were conceived late at night and are inspired by insomniaInsomnia
Insomnia is most often defined by an individual's report of sleeping difficulties. While the term is sometimes used in sleep literature to describe a disorder demonstrated by polysomnographic evidence of disturbed sleep, insomnia is often defined as a positive response to either of two questions:...
. It took Eastgate a long time to describe how he was feeling "in a way that sounded original" for such a common theme in pop music. The lyrics in the chorus are about the first time Late of the Pier drove to London and got lost. "Space and the Woods" tries to weigh up what is more important: a person or an inanimate object, or an absence of anything, while "The Bears Are Coming" concerns "a silent threat". The idea for the lyric "A heartbeat, a flicker, a line" in "Heartbeat" came to Eastgate while recording the song and hearing its time signature always changing.
The lyricist cannot remember writing "White Snake" and did not know there was a band of the same name
Whitesnake
Whitesnake are an English rock band, founded in 1978 by David Coverdale after his departure from his previous band, Deep Purple. The band's early material has been compared by critics to Deep Purple, but by the mid 1980s they had moved to a more commercial hard rock style...
in existence. "Focker" evolved out of a demo, called "6/8 Focker", Eastgate sang through a guitar amp with initially indecipherable lyrics. "The Enemy Are the Future" gets its name from a sentence in a promotional leaflet for the indie rock
Indie rock
Indie rock is a genre of alternative rock that originated in the United Kingdom and the United States in the 1980s. Indie rock is extremely diverse, with sub-genres that include lo-fi, post-rock, math rock, indie pop, dream pop, noise rock, space rock, sadcore, riot grrrl and emo, among others...
band The Enemy
The Enemy (UK band)
The Enemy are an English rock band formed in Coventry in 2006, signed to Warner Music Group . In June 2007, The Enemy played twice at Glastonbury Festival, first in the 'Guardian Lounge' on Saturday and then the much larger 'Other Stage' on Sunday. They also headlined on the Saturday night of T in...
, who Late of the Pier supported at a few gigs. Eastgate has explained that for "Mad Dogs and Englishmen" he randomly "shouted lots of short phrases" and then tried to make sense of what he said. The process led to stylised lines like "Falling over aeroplanes and wanting to be a derelict".
Composition
Fantasy Black Channel is largely built on sonic experiments and the use of studio and computer techniques. The opening track, "Hot Tent Blues", is an instrumentalInstrumental
An instrumental is a musical composition or recording without lyrics or singing, although it might include some non-articulate vocal input; the music is primarily or exclusively produced by musical instruments....
short which contains seven layers of electric guitar run through a Zoom 506 bass guitar pedal. "Broken" was conceived during a jam session between Eastgate's guitar riff
RIFF
The Resource Interchange File Format is a generic file container format for storing data in tagged chunks. It is primarily used to store multimedia such as sound and video, though it may also be used to store any arbitrary data....
s and Dawson's drumming, while a demo of "Space and the Woods" similar to the Nirvana song "All Apologies
All Apologies
"All Apologies" is a song by the American grunge band Nirvana, written by frontman Kurt Cobain. It was released as the second single from the band's third album, In Utero, which was released on September 21, 1993...
" was reworked and remixed in the studio. Eastgate credits Storm Mortimer, who used to drive Late of the Pier around London, as the muse for "The Bears Are Coming". She often sang impromptu and the frontman eventually borrowed a page of her songs and added an afrobeat
Afrobeat
Afrobeat is a combination of traditional Yoruba music, jazz, highlife, funk and chanted vocals, fused with percussion and vocal styles, popularised in Africa in the 1970s. Its main creator was the Nigerian multi-instrumentalist and bandleader Fela Kuti, who gave it its name, who used it to...
-inspired rhythm to it. Eastgate and Dawson wanted to create a track that evoked the idea of "coming out of the jungle" and credit varied musical acts like Slagsmålsklubben
Slagsmålsklubben
Slagsmålsklubben are a Swedish electronic group from Norrköping, Östergötland. The group's name is a comically literal Swedish translation of the title of the novel and film Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk. They have released three studio albums so far...
, Prince
Prince (musician)
Prince Rogers Nelson , often known simply as Prince, is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and actor. Prince has produced ten platinum albums and thirty Top 40 singles during his career. Prince founded his own recording studio and label; writing, self-producing and playing most, or all, of...
, The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
, Mr Flash, FrYars, and Lutricia McNeal
Lutricia McNeal
Lutricia McNeal is an American R&B/pop singer. She achieved worldwide success with her singles "Ain't That Just the Way" which sold two million copies worldwide, "Stranded" and "Someone Loves You Honey" .-Biography:McNeal is the seventh of nine children...
as inspiration.
"Random Firl" was one of Alkan's favourites and he persuaded Late of the Pier to re-record it like a classical
Classical music
Classical music is the art music produced in, or rooted in, the traditions of Western liturgical and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 11th century to present times...
piece of music rather than in a rock-oriented way. The vocal harmonies at the end of the song were added during one of the last days of recording when the pressure to complete the album was high. "Heartbeat" is based on an old acid house
Acid house
Acid house is a sub-genre of house music that emphasizes a repetitive, hypnotic and trance-like style, often with samples or spoken lines rather than sung lyrics. Acid house's core electronic squelch sounds were developed around the mid-1980s, particularly by DJs from Chicago who experimented with...
demo track that Eastgate created during his childhood using a Roland TB-303
Roland TB-303
The Roland TB-303 Bass Line is a bass synthesizer with built-in sequencer manufactured by the Roland corporation from late 1981 to 1984 that had a defining role in the development of contemporary electronic music.-History:...
electronic synthesiser-sequencer
Music sequencer
The music sequencer is a device or computer software to record, edit, play back the music, by handling note and performance information in several forms, typically :...
. The track features complex time signature progressions and a guitar solo
Guitar solo
In popular music, a guitar solo is a melodic passage, section, or entire piece of music written for an electric guitar or an acoustic guitar. Guitar solos, which often contain varying degrees of improvisation, are used in many styles of popular music such as blues, jazz, rock and metal styles such...
played by Potter on the sampler
Sampler (musical instrument)
A sampler is an electronic musical instrument similar in some respects to a synthesizer but, instead of generating sounds, it uses recordings of sounds that are loaded or recorded into it by the user and then played back by means of a keyboard, sequencer or other triggering device to perform or...
at the end. "Whitesnake" was inspired by the music of Devo
Devo
Devo is an American band formed in 1973 consisting of members from Kent and Akron, Ohio. The classic line-up of the band includes two sets of brothers, the Mothersbaughs and the Casales . The band had a #14 Billboard chart hit in 1980 with the single "Whip It", and has maintained a cult...
, Roxy Music
Roxy Music
Roxy Music was a British art rock band formed in 1971 by Bryan Ferry, who became the group's lead vocalist and chief songwriter, and bassist Graham Simpson. The other members are Phil Manzanera , Andy Mackay and Paul Thompson . Former members include Brian Eno , and Eddie Jobson...
, and Dandi Wind
Dandi Wind
Dandi Wind is a post-industrial band created in Vancouver, Canada in 2003. The band consisted of duo Dandilion Wind Opaine and Szam Findlay. Opaine went on to form the disco band Fan Death...
, while "VW" is based on a 2001 demo recorded in Eastgate's attic. In the studio, Late of the Pier hired brass players to perform the horn section
Horn section
In music, a horn section can refer to several groups of musicians. It can refer to the musicians in a symphony orchestra who play the horn . In a British-style brass band it refers to the tenor horn players. In popular music, it can also refer to a small group of wind instrumentalists who augment a...
s and create new scales. Once the instrumentals were recorded, the band members purposefully decided to mix their own playing lower in certain sections of the song so that listeners could hear the horns
Horn (instrument)
The horn is a brass instrument consisting of about of tubing wrapped into a coil with a flared bell. A musician who plays the horn is called a horn player ....
more clearly.
"Focker" was created using a looped riff from "6/8 Focker". Eastgate then conceived a drum solo and remixed and rearranged the last 20 seconds of the song. "The Enemy Are the Future" was created during a hungover jam session, where all band members played individually and not in tandem. Dawson performed around 40 different beats one after another all in different timings. The session was recorded using a tape player and a track was moulded in the studio. Four different endings were recorded and three were spliced together at the end. "Mad Dogs and Englishmen", whose riff is based on an old French samba
Samba
Samba is a Brazilian dance and musical genre originating in Bahia and with its roots in Brazil and Africa via the West African slave trade and African religious traditions. It is recognized around the world as a symbol of Brazil and the Brazilian Carnival...
song, was borne out of an interplay between Eastgate on the guitar and Faley on the bass. The last track on the album, "Bathroom Gurgle", includes "a squelchy grind of the riff" purpose-built for the Liars Club audience during the band's first ever gigs. Eastgate has explained, "I had these two themes, which looped round on each other which I sang very exasperated Annie Lennox
Annie Lennox
Annie Lennox, OBE , born Ann Lennox, is a Scottish singer-songwriter, political activist and philanthropist. After achieving minor success in the late 1970s with The Tourists, with fellow musician David A...
style vocals over." The fast tempo
Tempo
In musical terminology, tempo is the speed or pace of a given piece. Tempo is a crucial element of any musical composition, as it can affect the mood and difficulty of a piece.-Measuring tempo:...
of the first half of the song was juxtaposed against a section of "slow drama".
Critical reception
Media response to Fantasy Black Channel was highly favourable; aggregating website MetacriticMetacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
reports a normalised
Standard score
In statistics, a standard score indicates how many standard deviations an observation or datum is above or below the mean. It is a dimensionless quantity derived by subtracting the population mean from an individual raw score and then dividing the difference by the population standard deviation...
rating of 81% based on 18 critical reviews. Allmusic's K. Ross Hoffman described the album as "glorious and galvanising" and labelled it "a convoluted construction crammed with so many immediately gratifying moments that it takes multiple listens to extricate them all". John Burgess of The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
explained that a new favourite song, riff, or wayward moment can be found every time that the album is listened to. Tim Chester of NME
NME
The New Musical Express is a popular music publication in the United Kingdom, published weekly since March 1952. It started as a music newspaper, and gradually moved toward a magazine format during the 1980s, changing from newsprint in 1998. It was the first British paper to include a singles...
concluded, "It takes a certain kind of mind to make this. While others whinge about living and dying in cul-de-sac
Cul-de-sac
A cul-de-sac is a word of French origin referring to a dead end, close, no through road or court meaning dead-end street with only one inlet/outlet...
towns shackled by cul-de-sac imaginations, LOTP’s vision is housed on Dubai
Dubai
Dubai is a city and emirate in the United Arab Emirates . The emirate is located south of the Persian Gulf on the Arabian Peninsula and has the largest population with the second-largest land territory by area of all the emirates, after Abu Dhabi...
's 'The World
The World (archipelago)
The World or World Islands is an artificial archipelago of various small islands constructed in the rough shape of a world map, located off the coast of Dubai, United Arab Emirates. The World islands are composed mainly of sand dredged from Dubai's shallow coastal waters, and are one of several...
' island-creation project."
Some reviewers classified Fantasy Black Channel into the British New Rave genre and musical scene. Others claimed that they could hear impressions of Roxy Music frontman Bryan Ferry
Bryan Ferry
Bryan Ferry, CBE is an English singer, musician, and songwriter. Ferry came to public prominence in the early 1970s as lead vocalist and principal songwriter with the band Roxy Music, who enjoyed a highly successful career with three number one albums and ten singles entering the top ten charts in...
and musician Gary Numan
Gary Numan
Gary Numan is an English singer, composer, and musician, most widely known for his chart-topping 1979 hits "Are 'Friends' Electric?" and "Cars". His signature sound consisted of heavy synthesizer hooks fed through guitar effects pedals.Numan is considered a pioneer of commercial electronic music...
in the recording. Pitchfork Media
Pitchfork Media
Pitchfork Media, usually known simply as Pitchfork or P4k, is a Chicago-based daily Internet publication established in 1995 that is devoted to music criticism and commentary, music news, and artist interviews. Its focus is on underground and independent music, especially indie rock...
's Adam Moerder commented that it contains several New Rave compositions which are aesthetically dubious. Chris Baynes of PopMatters
PopMatters
PopMatters is an international webzine of cultural criticism that covers many aspects of popular culture. PopMatters publishes reviews, interviews, and detailed essays on most cultural products and expressions in areas such as music, television, films, books, video games, comics, sports, theater,...
claimed that the band members "wear their influences pretty much inked onto their sleeves", but concluded that the album is exciting and excitable in equal measure. According to Late of the Pier, comparisons to Klaxons
Klaxons
Klaxons are a British indie rock band, based in London. Following the release of numerous 7-inch singles on different independent record labels, as well as the success of previous singles "Magick" and "Golden Skans", the band released their debut album, Myths of the Near Future on 29 January 2007....
and New Rave are the results of lazy journalism, especially for a scene the band has never been in. Eastgate has explained that musical influences are often subconscious, even though the band members tried not to listen to anything but their own work while recording the album. Nick Mitchell of The Skinny pointed out that the record is "an unrestrained, unclassifiable, unexpectedly triumphant romp through blaring influences and genres, from the 70s camp rock of Queen
Queen (band)
Queen are a British rock band formed in London in 1971, originally consisting of Freddie Mercury , Brian May , John Deacon , and Roger Taylor...
and Bowie
David Bowie
David Bowie is an English musician, actor, record producer and arranger. A major figure for over four decades in the world of popular music, Bowie is widely regarded as an innovator, particularly for his work in the 1970s...
to the primitive electronics
Electronic music
Electronic music is music that employs electronic musical instruments and electronic music technology in its production. In general a distinction can be made between sound produced using electromechanical means and that produced using electronic technology. Examples of electromechanical sound...
of Gary Numan, with echoes of 90s computer games and snatches of modern house
House music
House music is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in Chicago, Illinois, United States in the early 1980s. It was initially popularized in mid-1980s discothèques catering to the African-American, Latino American, and gay communities; first in Chicago circa 1984, then in other...
".
Fantasy Black Channel figured in several publications' end-of-year best album lists for 2008, notably, at number three by Clash
Clash (magazine)
Clash is a popular music and fashion magazine based in the United Kingdom. Its magazine title is published 12 times a year. It has a circulation of around 40,000....
, at number five by FACT, and at number 18 by NME
NME
The New Musical Express is a popular music publication in the United Kingdom, published weekly since March 1952. It started as a music newspaper, and gradually moved toward a magazine format during the 1980s, changing from newsprint in 1998. It was the first British paper to include a singles...
. It was ranked at number 16 in the HMV Poll Of Polls for 2008, which aggregates the votes of prominent British critics to decide the commercial group's Album Of The Year. Earlier in 2008, Rory Carroll of Artrocker
ArtRocker
Artrocker is a UK-based collective involved in music promotion and publishing. It was started by Paul Cox and Tom Fawcett who had been co-promoters of a London night called The Sausage Factory...
claimed that the record would have been a late entrant for the Mercury Music Prize, and would have probably won the award, if nominations had been made in August rather than July 2008. Because of their work on the album, Late of the Pier received a nomination for Best New Band at the 2009 NME Awards
NME Awards
The NME Awards is an annual music awards show in the United Kingdom, founded by the music magazine, NME .The first awards show was held in 1953 as the NME Poll Winners Concerts, shortly after the founding of the magazine....
. Two tracks were also nominated: "Bathroom Gurgle" and "Heartbeat", in the Best Dancefloor Filler and Best Video categories respectively. In 2009, Clash placed Fantasy Black Channel at number 40 in its list of the 50 Greatest Albums, 2004–2009, while FACT included it at number 99 in its editorial staff list of the 100 Best: Albums of the Decade.
Track listing
All songs written and arranged by Sam Eastgate, unless otherwise stated.- A hidden trackHidden trackIn the field of recorded music, a hidden track is a piece of music that has been placed on a CD, audio cassette, vinyl record or other recorded medium in such a way as to avoid detection by the casual listener...
, "No Time", begins at 4:50 of "Bathroom Gurgle".
Bonus tracks
- "Dose A" – 1:47 – track 13 on the iTunesITunesiTunes is a media player computer program, used for playing, downloading, and organizing digital music and video files on desktop computers. It can also manage contents on iPod, iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad....
version - "Very Wav" – 4:44 – track 13 on the Japanese and U.S. editions
- "Focker (Rolmops RemixRemixA remix is an alternative version of a recorded song, made from an original version. This term is also used for any alterations of media other than song ....
)" – 3:15 – track 14 on the Japanese edition - "The Bears Are Coming (Emperor Machine Remix)" – 9:22 – track 14 on U.S. edition and track 15 on the Japanese edition
Vinyl
The 2008 UK LP version of Fantasy Black Channel comprised a standard black vinyl copy in a gatefoldGatefold
A gatefold is a type of fold used for advertising around a magazine or section, and for packaging of media such as vinyl records.- LP covers :...
picture sleeve. It was released a week earlier than the CD version and had the following track changes:
- "Space and the Woods (Cenzo TownsendCenzo TownsendCenzo Townshend is an English music producer, mixer, and audio engineer. Townshend has collaborated with both mainstream and underground artists, including The Stranglers, Hothouse Flowers, New Order, Sleeper, Kaiser Chiefs, Northside, The Cranberries, Snow Patrol, as well as U2 and Echo & the...
Mix)" instead of "Space and the Woods" - "The Bears Are Coming (Original Version)" instead of "The Bears Are Coming"
- "Heartbeat (Cenzo Townsend Version)" instead of "Heartbeat"
The 2009 U.S. LP version was released concurrently with the CD version.
Personnel
Band- Sam Eastgate – lead vocalsSingingSinging is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments...
, electric guitarElectric guitarAn electric guitar is a guitar that uses the principle of direct electromagnetic induction to convert vibrations of its metal strings into electric audio signals. The signal generated by an electric guitar is too weak to drive a loudspeaker, so it is amplified before sending it to a loudspeaker...
, acoustic guitarAcoustic guitarAn acoustic guitar is a guitar that uses only an acoustic sound board. The air in this cavity resonates with the vibrational modes of the string and at low frequencies, which depend on the size of the box, the chamber acts like a Helmholtz resonator, increasing or decreasing the volume of the sound...
, drum sequencingDrum machineA drum machine is an electronic musical instrument designed to imitate the sound of drums or other percussion instruments. They are used in a variety of musical genres, not just purely electronic music...
, synthesiser - Andrew Faley – bass guitarBass guitarThe bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
, backing vocalsSingingSinging is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments...
, bass synthesiser - Sam Potter – samplerSampler (musical instrument)A sampler is an electronic musical instrument similar in some respects to a synthesizer but, instead of generating sounds, it uses recordings of sounds that are loaded or recorded into it by the user and then played back by means of a keyboard, sequencer or other triggering device to perform or...
, synthesiser, backing vocals - Ross Dawson – drumDrum kitA drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
s
Additional musicians
- Giselle Kennedy – backing vocals (track 2)
- Erol Alkan – backing vocals (track 5)
- Nik Carter – tenor vocalsTenorThe tenor is a type of male singing voice and is the highest male voice within the modal register. The typical tenor voice lies between C3, the C one octave below middle C, to the A above middle C in choral music, and up to high C in solo work. The low extreme for tenors is roughly B2...
, baritone vocalsBaritoneBaritone is a type of male singing voice that lies between the bass and tenor voices. It is the most common male voice. Originally from the Greek , meaning deep sounding, music for this voice is typically written in the range from the second F below middle C to the F above middle C Baritone (or...
(track 8) - Jack Birchwood – trumpetTrumpetThe trumpet is the musical instrument with the highest register in the brass family. Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BCE. They are played by blowing air through closed lips, producing a "buzzing" sound which starts a standing wave vibration in the air...
, flugel horn (track 8)
Production
- Erol Alkan – producer; mixingAudio mixing (recorded music)In audio recording, audio mixing is the process by which multiple recorded sounds are combined into one or more channels, most commonly two-channel stereo. In the process, the source signals' level, frequency content, dynamics, and panoramic position are manipulated and effects such as reverb may...
(except tracks 1, 2, 3) - Sam Eastgate – producer (tracks 1, 2, 4, 9, 12); arrangements
- Jimmy Robertson – engineering; mixing (except tracks 1, 2, 3)
- Mark Alloway – assistant engineer (tracks 1, 2, 3, 7, 9, 10, 11)
- Al Lawson – assistant engineer (track 1)
- Ben Jackson – assistant engineer (track 7)
- Oli Wright – assistant engineer (track 12)
- Cenzo Townsend – mixing (tracks 1, 2, 3)
- Neil Comber – assistant mixer (track 1, 2, 3)
- Darren Simpson – assistant mixer (track 4)
- Daniel Rejmer – assistant mixer (tracks 5, 11)
- Lee Slaney – assistant mixer (tracks 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12)
- Mike MarshMike Marsh (musician)Mike Marsh is the drummer of Dashboard Confessional. Mike has featured on all the band's albums, from The Places You Have Come To Fear The Most to Alter the Ending. He also played with them for MTV Unplugged....
– masteringAudio masteringMastering, a form of audio post-production, is the process of preparing and transferring recorded audio from a source containing the final mix to a data storage device ; the source from which all copies will be produced...
(except track 4) - Nilesh Patel – mastering (track 4)
Artwork
- Jon Bergman – cover artCover artCover art is the illustration or photograph on the outside of a published product such as a book , magazine, comic book, video game , DVD, CD, videotape, or music album. The art has a primarily commercial function, i.e...
- Late of the Pier – designDesignDesign as a noun informally refers to a plan or convention for the construction of an object or a system while “to design” refers to making this plan...
- Traffic – design
Recording and release details
Fantasy Black Channel was recorded between 2006 and 2008 in Sam Eastgate's bedroom in Castle Donington and at the following studios in London.| Track | Location |
|---|---|
| "Hot Tent Blues" | Sam Eastgate's bedroom; Sofa Sound |
| "Broken" | Sam Eastgate's bedroom; Sofa Sound |
| "Space and the Woods" | The Miloco Garden |
| "The Bears Are Coming" | Sam Eastgate's bedroom; The Miloco Garden |
| "Random Firl" | Sofa Sound |
| "Heartbeat" | Sofa Sound |
| "White Snake" | The Miloco Garden; EMI EMI The EMI Group, also known as EMI Music or simply EMI, is a multinational music company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the fourth-largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry and one of the "big four" record companies. EMI Group also has a major... Publishing Studios |
| "VW" | The Miloco Garden |
| "Focker" | Sam Eastgate's bedroom; The Miloco Garden |
| "The Enemy Are the Future" | The Garden |
| "Mad Dogs and Englishmen" | The Miloco Garden |
| "Bathroom Gurgle" | Sam Eastgate's bedroom; The Miloco Garden; Miloco Hoxton Square Hoxton Square Hoxton Square is a garden square situated in Hoxton in the London Borough of Hackney, in London's East End. Formerly home to industrial premises, since the 1990s it has become the heart of the Hoxton arts and media scene, as well as being a hub of the thriving local entertainment district... ; Strongroom; Miloco Musikbox |
The album's release history is as follows:
| Region | Date | Label | Format(s) | Catalog |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Japan | 30 July 2008 | Toshiba EMI | CD | TOCP-66797 |
| United Kingdom and Ireland | 4 August 2008 | Parlophone | LP | 228 0331 |
| 11 August 2008 | CD, digital download Music download A music download is the transferral of music from an Internet-facing computer or website to a user's local computer. This term encompasses both legal downloads and downloads of copyright material without permission or payment... |
228 0342 | ||
| France | 4 September 2008 | Because Music Because Music Because Music is an independent record label with headquarters in Paris and London. Because Music was founded in 2006 and has acts on its roster such as Mercury Music Prize nominated Metronomy and electronic duo Justice. Along with actress and songwriter Charlotte Gainsbourg and husband and wife... |
CD | BEC 5772361 |
| United States | 13 January 2009 | Astralwerks | LP | ASW 28033 |
| CD, digital download | ASW 37034 | |||
Chart positions
Album| Chart (2008) | Peak |
|---|---|
| UK Albums Chart UK Albums Chart The UK Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales in the United Kingdom. It is compiled every week by The Official Charts Company and broadcast on a Sunday on BBC Radio 1 , and published in Music Week magazine and on the OCC website .To qualify for the UK albums chart... |
28 |
| Irish Albums Chart Irish Albums Chart The Irish Albums Chart is the Irish music industry standard albums popularity chart issued weekly by the Irish Recorded Music Association and compiled on its behalf by Chart-Track. Chart rankings are based on sales, which are compiled through over-the-counter retail data captured electronically... |
— |
| Belgian Albums Chart Ultratop Ultratop is an organization which generates and publishes the official record charts in Belgium, and it is also the name of most of those charts... (Flanders Flemish Region The Flemish Region is one of the three official regions of the Kingdom of Belgium—alongside the Walloon Region and the Brussels-Capital Region. Colloquially, it is usually simply referred to as Flanders, of which it is the institutional iteration within the context of the Belgian political system... ) |
68 |
| Belgian Alternative Albums | 30 |
| French Albums Chart | — |
| Japanese Albums Chart Oricon , established in 1999, is the holding company at the head of a Japanese corporate group that supplies statistics and information on music and the music industry in Japan. It started as , which was founded by Sōkō Koike in November 1967 and became known for its music charts. Oricon Inc... |
— |
| Chart (2009) | Peak |
|---|---|
| Billboard 200 (U.S.) Billboard 200 The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists... |
— |
Singles
| Song | Peak |
|---|---|
| UK UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ... |
|
| "Bathroom Gurgle" | — |
| "The Bears Are Coming" | — |
| "Space and the Woods Space and the Woods "Space and the Woods" is a song released by UK band Late of the Pier on 5 March 2007. It was released on 500 limited edition 7" records.The single and b-side are different recordings to those that appeared on the Zarcorp Demo. Notably, "Heartbeat, Flicker, Line" was given a definite name,... " / "Focker Focker "Focker" is a song by UK band Late of the Pier, released on May 19, 2008 as a double a-side with Space And The Woods.Focker appears on Late of the Pier's debut album, Fantasy Black Channel.-Track listing:*7"... " |
— |
| "Heartbeat Heartbeat (Late of the Pier song) "Heartbeat" is a song by British rock group Late of the Pier. It was released as a single on the 4 August 2008. It is the first Late of the Pier song to chart, coming in at number 98 in the UK Singles Chart. It is notable for its time signatures, alternating between 4/4 and 7/8 timing... " |
98 |
| "Bathroom Gurgle" (re-release) | — |
"—" denotes releases that did not chart.
External links
- Fantasy Black Channel music player at Late of the Pier official site
- Fantasy Black Channel lyrics at Late of the Pier official site
- Fantasy Black Channel critical reviews at MetacriticMetacriticMetacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...