PTYT 072
FAMILIAR
LIMITED DOUBLE ETCHED LP/CD/DL
OCTOBER 2014
EXCEPTER are:
John Fell Ryan
Jon Winfield Nicoholson
Lala Fell Ryan
Nathan Corbin
Robert Girardin
CD TRACKLISTING:
MAIDS
PALACE TO PALACE
SUNBURNED KIDS
SAME ADDRESS, DIFFERENT CITY
DESTROY
HOLY GIRL
LOOKIN' FOR POLY
GRINNING IN YOUR FACE
SONG TO THE SIREN
THE RETURN OF THE ACID BEAT-BOX INNER VOYAGERS. (LEST WE FORGET THE FLUTES & PIANOS TOO)
TRIP-TRIP-TRIPPING…..
"TIME KEEPS SLIPPING INTO THE FUTURE"
2012 I SAW JOHN/JEFF & LALA IT WAS MIDNIGHT IN LONDON & THEY WERE GETTING INTO A TAXI ON BRICK LANE, HEADING OFF FOR AN OVERNIGHT STAY ON THE FLOOR OF GATWICK AIRPORT IN ORDER TO CATCH A HELLA EARLY FLIGHT TO THE LAND OF THE MIDNIGHT SUN…..JFR TURNS TO ME BEFORE LEAVING TO ASSURE ME THEY WILL BE FINE “ I’VE A KING JAMES BIBLE & A PACK OF TAROT CARDS TO SEE ME THRU”.
EXCEPTER HAD THAT VERY EVENING SPOOKED THE HORSES PLAYING THE ROUGH TRADE EAST SHOP WITH JFR PARADING A NEWLY TORN & SHORN TREE AROUND THE STORE TO PROTECT HIMSELF FROM JIHAD ATTACKS FROM IRATE MUSLIMS AFTER LALA’S LOCAL SHOPPING SPREE FOR CUT PRICE BURHKAS. A LOCAL FLYING LIZARD LEFT LOOKING UNCOMFORTABLE WHILE THE FAITHFUL PASSED AROUND A KNOWING SMILE.
THIS ALBUM WAS BIRTHED EARLIER IN THAT YEARS EURO TOUR - A WEEK LONG STOPOVER AT FAUST STUDIOS IN PRAGUE POST CREEPY TEPPEE ACID FEST GATHERING. AND LATER WAS TEASED TO FIRM ERECTNESS IN THEIR VERY OWN L.A. HOME/STUDIO..NO AUTO-TUNE WAS USED IN THE MAKING OF THIS RECORD.
THEIR WASTE COAST ODESSY MISH-TAKE IS NOW HISTORY AND THE FAMILY ARE NOW SAFELY RELOCATED IN THE LAND OF LIVING BACK IN POST APOCALYPSE BROOKLYN TOWN, IN A NEW YORK STATE OF MIND.
BUT THEIR TRAVEL PLANS FOR NOW ARE CURTAILED BY THE CONTROLLING FORCE OF A THREE FOOT HIGH JEDI MASTER BEING WITH A SLEEP DISORDER…..WILL WE EVER SEE THEIR LIKE AGAIN ?
2013 RECORD LABEL BFP MEETS A PERFECT STORM - LIFE, DEAF, DEATH, LIES, MONEY, MADNESS.
THERE BE MONSTERS.....
"PICK YOURSELF UP, DUST YOURSELF OFF, START ALL OVER AGAIN" AS THE SONG GOES.
A CHRISTMAS COLLISION IN A NEW YORK SNOW GLOBE "IN ALL THE BARS IN ALL THE WORLD...."
EXCEPTER OPEN FOR CHRIS & COSEY - DOWNTOWN NEW YORK SHOW. THE BAND START THEIR SOUND SURROUND DOUSING OF THE ROOM AS THE FULL HOUSE AUDIENCE FIGHT THEIR WAY IN. GUESTS 86-ED.
NO ONE REVIEWS THE SHOW.
SPRING 2014 - HEXED, VEXED, A DOUBLE CLICK OF THE HEELS.
EXCEPTER TOUR EUROPE USING SPIRIT GUIDES TO TRY TO LOCATE THEIR MISSING RECORD CO.
FLIGHT CONTROL COMPUTERS DOWNED. APOLOGIES YOUR FLIGHT WAS DELAYED.....
Excepter
Familiar
Blast First Petite; 2014
By Marc Masters ; October 8, 2014
7.8
By all rights, Familiar should be the sound of Excepter falling apart, or at least picking up the pieces. In 2011 they lost member Clare Amory to cancer, and her partner, band member Nathan Corbin, decided he couldn’t continue in the group without her. Founder John Fell Ryan and his wife and bandmate Lala Harrison Ryan moved from Brooklyn to Los Angeles, then returned. It's been four years since Excepter's last full-length, Presidence, so it's reasonable to expect Familiar to reflect this disarray, especially since their open-ended jams have always sounded on the verge of collapse.
But Familiar turns out to be one of the most focused efforts in this idiosyncratic band’s 12-year history. Some tracks are practically pop songs compared to Excepter's standard wandering sound, and even the more abstract pieces have distinct shape and purpose. Part of this is due to a plan conceived long before Amory passed away: to make songs with “familiar” instruments and melodies, some even nodding to nursery rhymes. The group had only a week to record during a 2012 European tour, so efficiency was at a premium; what makes Familiar impressive isn’t those goals (Excepter has veered toward conventional structure before), but that the results feel natural. There’s no sense of the band squeezing awkwardly into new costumes. Everything fits well; each sonic element is right where it belongs.
This unforced unity is clearest when comparing more melodic tracks to looser siblings. Opener “Maids”, with Lala’s ethereal chants riding a wave of cresting beat, is their catchiest song since the ear-worming “‘Rock’ Stepper” (from 2006’s Alternation, the only Excepter album that matches Familiar in sharpness). Yet “Same Address, Different City”, which sees John drooling like Mark E. Smith over meandering electronic squiggles, manages to scale as high as “Maids”. Similar parallels emerge when you put new-wave-ish “Palace to Palace” next to mantra-like “Grinning in Your Face”: one relies on hook and the other on repetition, yet both build momentum without wasting a single breath.
The most thrilling example of Familiar’s laser focus comes on a seven-minute mini-masterpiece called “Destroy”. It's Corbin’s only contribution to the album, a piece he recorded with Amory when she was ill, in hopes of destroying her sickness with sound. Even though it was created separately from the rest of Familiar, it fully encapsulates the record’s strengths. Spraying whirring noise and morse-like transmissions over a pile-driving beat, “Destroy” is deceptively chaotic: jump to any point and it’s like waking up in a hailstorm, but chart it from start to finish and a near-classical sense of order emerges, with each element replacing its predecessor logically and mesmerizingly.
As if to emphasize the structured-ness of Familiar, Excepter closes the album with a cover of Tim Buckley’s 1970 ballad “Song to the Siren”. It’s the spot where the group most risks sounding like someone else, but rippling keyboard and Ryan’s long moans wash the tune in Excepter vibes. Still, it’s a daring move, and makes it tempting to paint this album as a complete rebirth for a band who deserves one. But their journey hasn’t exactly been linear, and they’re just as likely to throw a curveball next time as they are to continue down Familiar’s excellent, distinctive path.
