DIY. Let’s face it: all too often in music this phrase is a byword for ‘shit’. Low production values, a dearth of interesting ideas – you know the drill. Not so with Phantasm. Across the eleven tracks that make up this album, the, um, delightfully-named Fists – who are comprised of Angi Fletcher (guitar/vocals), James Finlay (guitar/vocals), Peter Conway (guitar/vocals), Dave Biggs (bass) and Theresa Wrigley (drums) – prove that a refusal to compromise does not necessarily equate to a lack of quality.
Drawing on a range of influences, which includes The Breeders and Thee Oh Sees, the Nottingham-based indie-rockers incorporate everything from country, noise and pop into their modus operandi, delivering an album full of ragged charm. So, alongside the opening thrust of ‘Go’ and its undeniably catchy chorus, we get the Yeah Yeah Yeahs-y ‘Big Wave’, while the jaunty licks of ‘Cockatoo’ quickly morph into a nice little psych-rock stomper. Elsewhere, ‘Yr Glove’ – a seven-minute mantra built around a beautiful, straw-in-the-mouth acoustic guitar motif – showcases Angi Fletcher’s fragile, emotive vocals to heart-rending effect. At times, this sounds like Laura Veirs fronting Dinosaur Jr, which leads one to assume that the lyrics to ‘Wasted’ (“…we wasted all our talent…”) must surely have been conceived in jest.
Heartfelt, honest and wholly irresistible, Phantasm may not be the most sonically dazzling album you’ll hear this year but it’ll certainly make you reassess the connotations of the aforementioned axiom. Fists are doing it themselves, and doing it well.
[Rating:4]
