Details Field Music

Field Music are the latest product of a long-running musical expedition, which seems to have extended its tendrils across much of the north east of England. Comprising a core of three members (Andrew Moore plus brother’s Peter and David Brewis) and an ever-shifting crew of local luminaries, Field Music are something of a North East supergroup. Peter was The Futureheads’ original drummer; Barry Futurehead was in one of the many early Field Music line-ups and sometime drummer Tom English is on loan from Maximo Park.

Listing an array of apposite and opposite influences (The Left Banke, Serge Gainsbourg, My Bloody Valentine, Stravinsky, Stax & Motown, Thelonious Monk, Roxy Music, Talking Heads, The Neptunes and Peter Gabriel among others) it’s hardly surprising that Field Music’s sound is like all of the best pop music you ever heard at once, but distinctly British – and distinctly north-eastern with it. This talented young group attack composition from the left of centre, twisting traditional song-writing conventions to fit their own sound.

For an album that on the surface at least, could seem cool and precise, there’s an underlying depth and warmth to Field Music’s debut release. In this sense here is an album, literally for all seasons. Immaculately produced and tightly constructed, it’s the small details on this record that demand repeated listenings. Where tracks such as opener, If Only The Moon Were Up and recent single You Can Decide demonstrate an economic precision that echoes a particularly English lineage that traces from Kate Bush through XTC to The Beatles whilst managing to remain utterly idiosyncratic – it’s when Field Music stray away from the three minute conventional that their innovative approach becomes more obvious. Whether it’s the more sombre, reflective Got To Get The Nerve which sees the band stretch their legs and create an almost autumnal-ambient drone, the crafted counterpoint of You’re So Pretty in which melody is thrown about in all directions, or the orchestral prog-pop of debut 7” Shorter Shorter which crams a multitude of time-changes and quasi-middle eights in under 2 minutes whilst still carrying a tune you can’t help but whistle – these songs have a habit of crawling under your skin and staying there.