FEWS - GLASS CITY

 

 Swedish noise guitar merchants FEWS always remind me of my late and still much missed mate Matt who I met and became firm friends with in Dortmund, Germany in the early Nineties. I used to go round to Matt's most Friday evenings after work. Partly to get stoned I confess, but there was more to it than that. There was the music and the banter too. Just good times. Matt had a huge record and CD collection and we, and whoever turned up too, used to take in turns to choose something to listen to as our brains slowly went numb and we wound down for the weekend before heading into town to meet up with the rest of our people.

Among the things that made Matt's music taste particularly interesting was his predilection for European bands . He was particularly European by disposition, having been brought up for some time in Switzerland and done a German degree, which led him to Dortmund after graduating. He loved Kraftwerk, and then Can when I introduced them to him and he fell for any number of other European bands down the years, Germans Notwist, Belgians DEUS and Soulwax, Dutch band The Nits, Finns 22 Pisterpirkko. Others too.

I can't help imagining that Matt would have dug FEWS. He would have loved their massed guitar sound, their intensity. They're yet another band based in Malmo, quite a few have popped up on my feed in recent weeks. They've been around for the best part of ten years but GLASS CITY is only their third album and they may have missed the chance to fully capitalise on their early cult allure.

There's been some upheaval in terms of the bands line up in recent years but it's made little difference in terms of their relentless intent. Perhaps the nature of their sound is a little dated, this is very Nineties in some respects. I thought again of DEUS and their first record in addition to And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead. Still, this is powerful stuff and FEWS strike me as a band that should be seen live if you get the chance. Anyhow, anyone that reminds me of Matt's taste will generally get a thumbs up from me and they certainly do.

                                                                Matt. Still missed.