Special Features/Formats:
- Blue vinyl (Limited Edition)
- CD
Tracklisting:
Side A
- You Will Kill for Me
- We Wish for Wounds
- Unwound Celluloid Frown
Side B
- Axis Muni
- Silver Ghosts With Crystal Spoons
Release Date: April 7, 2017
Label: Heavy Psych Sounds Records
Origin: Italy
Farflung has been on a tear for the last year with a new album and a split with Argentina’s own 3 AM on Headspin Records. They enter 2017 with another partnership with Heavy Psych Sounds to release a five track EP entitled Unwound Celluloid Frown, which carries on their brand of oscillator driven space rock and ambient krautrock presence. With their last release 5 having a heavier-than-usual edge, they tone the intensity down with this release with three tracks of effect pedal laden rock and two droning electronic tracks one could hear in a film composition or throughout the Neu catalog. The songwriting here is dialed in and is heavily reminiscent to what can be heard on their initial release The Belief Module, only with cleaner production rounding out this project.
An interesting detail that Unwound Celluloid Frown carries is the how the track arrangements are (assumingly) strategically placed throughout the record, as if to captivate and engage the listener’s attention span with sudden style and tempo shifts. This is particularly true with the A-side in part to the two heaviest hitters “You Will Kill For Me” and the title track sandwiched in between the krautrock/space rock hybrid instrumental “We Wish For Wounds”, a droning electronic composition that plays out more like a walk in the park than an interstellar overdrive blast. That last description especially rings true with how this whole album feels in aesthetic when compared to their last effort 5, more minimalist sounding, ethereal and mid tempo’d. The most interesting piece on the record belongs to the B -side lead off, “Axis Mundi”. Taking its name from the cosmic phenomenon that connects the heavens with earth (i.e. Yggdrasil, Mt. Olympus, Jacob’s Ladder etc); the ambient piece elicits a soothing sense of tranquility from the free floating nature of the instrumentation and harnesses natural sounds capes for added peace, soundtrack music grandeur. That would have been a fitting ending to conclude the record and hold off their finale piece “Silver Ghost With Crystal Spoon” for a future release, solely an opinion and nothing more.
- Matthew Hutchison
https://newnoisemagazine.com