{"id":19263,"date":"2020-09-17T05:30:00","date_gmt":"2020-09-17T09:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=19263"},"modified":"2020-07-21T15:02:28","modified_gmt":"2020-07-21T19:02:28","slug":"album-review-venus-furs-s-t","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2020\/09\/17\/album-review-venus-furs-s-t\/","title":{"rendered":"Album Review: Venus Furs — s\/t"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"If you\u2019re going to launch a musical project that evokes memories of a Velvet Underground song (\u201cVenus in Furs\u201d from 1967\u2019s The Velvet Underground & Nico<\/i>) you had better deliver the goods, or at least be prepared to get called out for not doing so. The plain fact is, while Venus Furs is quite appealing, the name is something of a red herring. Led by Montreal, Qu\u00e9bec-based Paul Kasner, Venus Furs actually has more to do with the sound and sensibility of the \u201880s paisley underground revival than the dark, seedy underbelly of the late-sixties scene. In that sense, it\u2019s psychedelia twice removed.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not to say the music isn\u2019t effective. With a hypnotic shoegaze vibe, tunes like the opening track \u201cChaos and Confusion\u201d mine familiar melodic territory in an inviting manner; with a gauzy mix and a slightly faraway vocal vibe, here the band sounds a bit like Dream Syndicate.<\/p>\n

Turning the gauze up to 10 on \u201cFriendly Fire,\u201d Venus Furs evokes memories of early Jesus and Mary Chain crossed with My Bloody Valentine; the melody is in there, but by design it\u2019s buried deeply. Yet Kasner makes sure that he can\u2019t be cornered musically: the single acoustic guitar and wobbly vocal that anchor \u201cGuards in the Garden\u201d are miles away from shoegaze. Even though its guitar work is based more upon chords than a melodic line, a signature melody shines through. Oddly, its catchy lead guitar lick is laid atop an arrangement that also features a goose-like horn line.<\/p>\n

\u201cNew Inspiration\u201d applies arena rock character to a dreamy tune. The track begins with an insistent cycle of three chords in succession, and the melody subtly unfolds as the song progresses. Here, Venus Furs has the sound of a band that\u2019s playing extremely loudly but a few blocks away from the listener. As the song nears its end, most of the instruments recede, leaving behind a forlorn piano that \u2013 if it was there before \u2013 would have escaped the notice of most listeners.<\/p>\n

\u201cParanoia\u201d features sheets of reverbed and feedback-drenched guitar chords, all in the service of an arrangement that\u2019s equal parts energy and somnambulant character. \u201cFire in Her Eyes\u201d introduces a skittering drum patter, funereal organ and a Sergio Leone \u201cspaghetti western\u201d vibe along with a whispery vocal. But \u201cLiving in Constant\u201d largely peels away the shoegaze elements, leaving behind a spare modern-garage feel that bears similarities to Black Angels and Black Mountain.<\/p>\n

The first few minutes of closing track \u201cPage Before\u201d feature nervy guitars and a more energetic vocal. The song\u2019s catchy melody, strong lead guitar work and the song\u2019s overall clean mix suggest Stone Roses or The Cure more than Slowdive or Ride. Yet, halfway through the lengthy track Kasner delivers windy squalls of guitar noise atop a hypnotic, three-chord vamp. And in doing so, he neatly ties together everything about the album into a tidy track. If one song displays all of the qualities and virtues of Venus Furs\u2019 debut album, it\u2019s this.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you\u2019re going to launch a musical project that evokes memories of a Velvet Underground song (\u201cVenus in Furs\u201d from 1967\u2019s The Velvet Underground & Nico) you had better deliver […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19259,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[39,49,62,65,67],"tags":[4272],"class_list":["post-19263","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-indie","category-new-release","category-rawk","category-review","category-shoegaze","tag-venus-furs","cat-39-id","cat-49-id","cat-62-id","cat-65-id","cat-67-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19263","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19263"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19263\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19264,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19263\/revisions\/19264"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19259"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}