It’s hard to believe I’ve been writing reviews of Fulkramick albums for nearly nine years, but it is apparently true.
Time has a way of moving away from you, receding more quickly, mocking you with its uncrossable distance, yet hovering like a mirage within arms reach ready to break your heart again.
Speaking of time fading like day into night and sleep into the workday, experimental multi-instrumentalist Fulkramick released what looks like his sixth album in August 2023 – fully six or seven months ago – and here I am finally writing down some thoughts about it.
Heavily drum-based, layered with acoustic and electric guitars, bass, synth and vocals, Fulkramick records have consistently been a musical version of an acid trip through seven decades of influence, combining a foundational mix (a “Fixed Center,” you might say) of Pink Floyd hallucinogenics, Beatles / Beach Boys harmonies, math rock, and indie folk, with any number of unexpected additions. This means each record is going to have a familiar vein, but some new flavors. Take for example the interlude into stoner metal in the style of Om and Shrinebuilder in “Focus Ask.” Or the vibe of late Radiohead in “Combat Come Back.” Or the anxious keys on “All Taken Time” conjuring memories of stressful Salaryman songs from the late 90s.
“Resisting is trying” brings us back to more familiar Fulkramick territory with those “Fleet Foxes” hipster harmonies, with a good measure of Redneck Manifesto math rock thrown in.
Speaking of harmonies – this record showcases Fulkramick’s most polished and melodic vocals to date.
While “Fixed Center” does carry forward those sonic inheritances of prior records, the record marks something of a departure or maturing in that it seems to have found a way to blend genres in a more cohesive way. There’s nothing wrong with genre hopping (Mr. Bungle, anyone?), and even a jarring or sudden style change can be compositionally effective – but somehow after all that genre-bending Fulkramick has found, at least on this record, what sounds like a more, dare I say it, “Fixed Center.” Here there’s less a sense of genre hopping or bending as genre blending, as if Fulkramick has found a seamless balance of influences that form a single sound, versus moving between sounds. Five records of unapologetically channeling from any point in seven decades of musical history, record six seems to have found the alchemical formula to transmute the ingredients into a holistic elixir.
ronanconroy 