Baltic Fleet - Baltic Fleet

  by Anthony Strutt

published: 5 / 3 / 2008

---

Review

‘Baltic Fleet’ is the self-titled debut album from the largely instrumental side project of Paul Fleming, the current keyboard player for Echo and The Bunnymen. It is a record of deep trances and heavy post rock style vibes. It opens with ‘Baltic Intro’, which has wild drums opening it which recall those on the Cure’s ‘Shake, Dog Shake'. To these are added trance-laden beats, which back up the bongo sounds to great psychedelic effect. ‘Black Lounge’ has gritty, big riffs of guitar which eventually end up sounding a little like the Bunnymen’s classic ‘Rescue’ single. It is very trippy and all the more wonderful for it. ‘3 Dollar Dress’ has a deep bass that gives it a Joy Division like edge, while ‘Castellon Theme’ is more post rock in feel and has a lonely paranoid piano to assist it. ‘48 Hour Drive (Boston)’ maintains the trippiness of some of the previous tracks, but has more of an organic sound and features some soft piano. ‘Reykjavik Promises’ features more of the big drums, while the gritty guitars have an element of grunge, but with a much cleaner sound giving them a psychedelic edge. ‘Pebble Shore’ is full of big beats of piano, and then has another softer-sounding piano layered on top of it to give it an extra layer of texture. ‘Double Door’ is the first track to feature any sign of a vocal, although in this case it sounds like a sample. To this are added big chunks of keyboards which have a 1970’s funkadelic sound. ‘Red Skies and Factories’ has big drums and slick, cinematic keyboards. ‘Hammer Blow’ is another moody film-influenced number with more sampled vocals and lots of chunky bass. ‘Berlin 8mm Deep’ starts off as a classical piano-based piece before a guitar eventually drips its notes all over it. ‘Chicago’ meanwhile is reminiscent of Broadcast with its retro feel and has big organ grooves and layers of female vocal. ‘The Design’ ends the album. It features a lonesome piano which sounds like something from the ‘Donnie Darko’ track and has distorted, totally inaudible vocals which bring this great album to an excellent close.

Track Listing:-

1 Baltic Intro
2 Black Lounge
3 3 Dollar Dress
4 Castellon Theme
5 48 Hour Drive (Boston)
6 Reykjavik Promise
7 Pebble Shore
8 Double Door
9 Red Skies And Factories
10 Hammer Blow
11 Berlin 8mm Deep
12 To Chicago
13 The Design

Band Links:-

http://www.balticfleetmusic.com/
https://www.facebook.com/BalticFleet
https://twitter.com/BalticFleetUK

Label Links:-

http://www.blowup.co.uk/records
https://www.facebook.com/blowuprecords
https://plus.google.com/+BlowUpRecords
https://twitter.com/BlowUpRecords
https://www.youtube.com/user/blowuprec
https://www.instagram.com/blowupimages