<< back

FOREST FIRE - 'SURVIVAL'

Formats

BEST002 - LP
N/A

Details

Forest Fire's debut album Survival was recorded over an eight-month period in Brooklyn, New York, and Portland, Oregon. The tracks are littered with out-of-tune horns, vibrant bursts of guitar, and layers of screeching electronics. Nathan Delffs' frantic guitar work threads throughout dark and carefully executed harmonies by Sharon Van Etten, Myisha Battle, and Nick Delffs (Shaky Hands). Ghostly synthesizers, arresting vocals, and loose percussion are woven together under Adam Spittler's glimmering production. A runaway hit across the blogosphere upon its original release of only a few hundred copies on Catbird Records last year, Survival was named La Blogotheque's (of Take Away Shows fame) 2008 Album of the Year, beating out year-end-list heavyweights Fleet Foxes, Bon Iver, and the like. "... an excellent album, and the one I listened to most this year. Raw, powerful songs, alternately nervous and hypnotic, like a drug-hazy stroll through the history of song." -La Blogotheque "It's inherently pop, only scrapped with closet distortion, slurred with lyrics like 'Why can't I kill someone I hate?' and musty with slacker vision.... You've got to believe [Delffs's] got one hell of an imagination, even when it's laid bare." -The Agit Reader "Are they folk? Well, no. Do they have slide guitars and a kind of city folk feel at times? Yes, they do, and that's welcomed with open arms, because these guys pull it off well ... they also can harness soundscapes of electro knob-turning fuzz, unusual percussion, acoustic guitars, slightly out of tune brass, screachable violins, and layers of electronics [to put] Forest Fire in a category unto themselves." -Artificial Amnesiac Blog "Survival is full of loose and ramshackle indie Americana that's intentionally noisy and bursts out in a full-fledged sentridoh most of the time." -Can You See the Sunset from the Southside Blog "The biggest highlight, and one of my soon-to-be-favorites of 2008, is the warped, fractured-folk buzz of 'Slow Motion.' ... Cut the Velvets' 'Heroin' in half and turn it into a campfire sing-along and you're getting close." -Pop Headwound Blog