FTR - Manners

  by Adrian Janes

published: 14 / 5 / 2019

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Review

There is a distinct Jesus and Mary Chain influence on this second album from French trio FTR, where sheets and hailstorms of noise surround or are gradually unleashed upon a rock or pop core (‘Chances’). It’s heard too in the often downcast, Reidy vocals of Yann C (‘Black Sand’). None of this is to deny that it’s often quite an exciting sound too. Combining guitars and keyboards with road-drill levels of drum machine usually works at a visceral level, unless you listen too hard and realise that at least some tracks (e.g. ‘Collision’, ‘Never’) don’t really develop much from the initial musical idea. But this potential failing can in a certain mood be taken instead as mesmerising; it certainly befits ‘10327’, where over a pounding bass and compelling drums a female voice is stretched to infinity. Having established a dark, dank atmosphere over the first few songs, it’s a surprise to hear ‘Right Track’. Suddenly the mumbled vocals are intelligible, the sentiment almost sweetly vulnerable: “With you I can get back on the right track.” As if ashamed of such candour, the vocals fade back into the mix, a bassy synth joins a higher line and a faster, trainlike rhythm takes over. It’s a particularly good example of how, though they have certain recurring elements to their sound, FTR are inventive enough with them to ensure no two songs are the same. In fact it’s with a couple of the latter tracks that this quality is shown to best effect. ‘Sunrise’ is another rarity where the singing is fairly clear, but what really distinguishes it are the incredible bursts of noise and feedback between the words. It’s as if they have found a studio where everything can go up to eleven and are taking full advantage of the fact. The official concluding track (spoiler alert: it’s followed by a ‘hidden’ track, which probably should have remained so) is the briskly-paced ‘One’. With an analogue synth sound giving it something of a late 70s/early 80s feel to begin with, as it moves on guitars and keyboards swarm around the vocals and it shifts through several distinct passages, even while maintaining the album’s most danceable rhythm. All in all, FTR demonstrate good enough manners to deserve an invitation into your home and your head.

Track Listing:-

1 Collision
2 Cross Your Heart
3 Black Sand
4 Chances
5 Love Bots
6 Right Track
7 10327
8 Sunrise
9 Never
10 One
11 Breathe