Finneyerkes is a two-man electronic project from Alabama. The unusual moniker is a combination of the two protagonists’ surnames, (Matt) Finney and (Randy) Yerkes and ‘Bastard’ is the latest fruits of their labour.
By calling your album in this way and beginning with a track named ‘Cobain’ one would expect this to be an aggressive record. For this particular ‘Cobain’, however, lush synths merge with twinkling atmospherics. ‘Mountain Lion’ and ‘Keely’ bear distant echoes of 4AD Records releases with the passage dominated by cavernous production and layers of effects.
‘Lins’ and ‘Chicago’ move into darker territory; their subtle textures and sense of space recalling a credit crunch-hit Bark Psychosis. Cylon’s remix of ‘DisMIX’, meanwhile, seems to combine bird song, layers of keyboards and some heavy duty gardening equipment. It’s undoubtedly dissonant but at the same time beautifully mysterious.
‘Bastard’ borrows elements from post-rock, ambient and electronica but the skill here is how Finneyerkes arrange and produce these influences in to some deeply moving instrumental pieces. Not a bad effort considering the band members didn’t know what to do with these tracks.
Web Sites:
Finneyerkes MySpace
Further Listening:
Bark Psychosis, Mole Harness, Planivaar
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