Feed Me Jack: ‘Ultra Ego’ Review and Track-By-Track.
REVIEW:
”A Californian indie band” is how you might choose to introduce the exciting 5-piece Feed Me Jack. But anyone familiar with their previous work might find this introduction at best informative, at worst underwhelming in its description of one of the most atypical and intriguing group of musicians ever to find itself in the indie category. Far from formulaic in structure or timbre, their unique pulses of melodic math pop - exemplified by previous EP Anatolia and applied to a collection of cover songs - has been ripened and refined with the release of Ultra Ego.
Opening with the incessantly jazzy and melodically rich ‘Move Your Still’ it is clear that FMJ have retained all of their proclivity for intricacy, be it stark dynamic changes or infectious tapping, but the amassed whole of 5 instruments feels cleaner, sharper and – gleefully - catchier than ever before. The song features a shimmering tremolo backdrop, wobbling bass and determined percussive work which provide a punchy framework for the twinkly guitar phrases and delicate vocals. The soft voice of Robert Ross ululates charmingly and accompanies sometimes compact, sometimes spacious sections before reaching its most euphonic as the titular lyric rings out within a three-part harmony. A notable improvement from previous work is the way that the vocals serve not merely to furnish the instruments but really to drive them.
It’s hard to imagine how much effort and attention goes into such clever song writing, how the immersive textures and pinpointed rhythmic changes are ever conceived, much less pulled off so exquisitely in a live-setting as is showcased in this session at blue rock studios.
Ever enigmatic and challenging, FMJ begin track two ‘Audio Pono’ with acoustic tones; contemplative and folky, the hummed melody, rippling snare rolls and rhythmic guitars percolate through the mix in a manner reminiscent of Maps & Atlases’ You and Me and The Mountain. Like that particular Chicago math rock band, Feed Me Jack pay astute attention to the balance between complexity and catchiness. Once more, the mystifying structure finds its comfortable moments as the ending minute of the song winds up and down again with purpose. The synthy elements of FMJ’s sound begin to ascend from atmospheric to something more integral. This theme punctuates the rest of the release, from the whistling, airy synth and glitchy drums of ‘Human Zoo’ down to the marriage of the ultra-boomy bassline and the droning electronic howls that close out the EP with ‘New Kid’.
With this in mind - and in the light of previous releases – it is track three ‘Emergency’ that begins to stand apart as the most ambitious and most fruitful Feed Me Jack have ever been. The electronic undertows of the music are a stable platform for the band to showcase their experimental side, one wholly enigmatic but restrained enough to be a rapturous success. The 5 minutes of arpeggiated guitars, hypnotically groovy bass and drums and warbling synth flourishes racket up towards my favourite part of this album at the 3:30 mark. The EP is at its most infectious when it settles into pop hook vocal lines that sound like principally electronic artists such as Miike Snow or Toro Y Moi. Feed Me Jack match this tone with elements of the unmistakably jazzy sound of fellow Californian band ‘The Speed of Sound in Seawater’, namely - but not limited to - the use of multiple singers and vocal harmonies.
Just as TSOSIS switched between vocalists on 2014’s ‘First Contact’, I was fascinated to read that this track was the first written and sung by bassist Cameron Lampert. It was with this, and with half my mind still mesmerised by the sheer musicianship on display, that I felt compelled to find out more about how Feed Me Jack concoct such mathy, riffy and dazzlingly poppy indie music. Fortunately, the band were enthused and kind enough to write a little about the origins and meaning of each song, as is detailed in the following…
TRACK-BY-TRACK:
Ultra Ego by Feed Me Jack
A lot of our songs start as demos. I began demoing this song in the fall of 2014 in Santa Cruz (This is Robert, one of the guitarists, typing. Also sitting in the room with me and making sure I don’t say anything too stupid is our keyboardist Jake). Sven (the other guitarist) recorded some vocals over the beginning of the demo, just to get the melody idea down. I heard his mumbled placeholder lyrics as “move your still,” and for some reason it never sounded right when I put any other words to that melody, so I ended up writing the lyrics of this song around that phrase, even though it’s kind of nonsense.
Ultra Ego by Feed Me Jack
Sven brought this song to the band last summer, and we were instantly enamored with it. I remember that shortly after we heard it, Cameron (the bassist) and I were walking through the cemetery near our old place in Santa Cruz on a misty gray evening, and we couldn’t stop humming the tune. This song will always bring that setting to mind. My favorite sound in the recording is Jake’s spooky ascending Rhodes at the buildup around 3:40.
Ultra Ego by Feed Me Jack
Cam had a very electronic-sounding demo going with a layered choral hook and some interlocking guitars and a chopped up breakbeat underneath. We tried to emulate that feeling as a band during rehearsals. Because the chord progressions are simple and strong we were able to elaborate on them during the recording process by adding different textures. We used a sample pack that was compiled by our friends in the Field Recording Working Group (soundcloud.com/field-recording-w-g), who collect the clangs and chants of soundscapes of struggle. It felt right to use these sounds because they are embedded with meaning – they not only serve the music well, but they also fit the lyrical themes of the song.
Ultra Ego by Feed Me Jack
The last two songs of the EP are more on the experimental side. The idea for Human Zoo came to me when I was taking a shower. I recorded a quick loop and Sven took a liking to it. He recorded his vocals for the first verse by painstakingly figuring out how to sing the phrases backwards, then reversing them. After we came back from our studio drum session with some samples, we chopped them up to make a beat and the song took on a new life. There’s a lot of chopping and pasting going on in general. I think all of these elements come together to create a feeling of disjointedness.
Ultra Ego by Feed Me Jack
This one started as a bedroom collaboration between Sven, Cam, and me, with Cam’s plucky acoustic bass anchoring the whole thing. Like Human Zoo, it’s never been played live, so we went into the recording process without expecting ourselves to have to perform it. The idea of a song only existing as a recording freed us up to do lots of weird things. All of the drums for the EP were recorded in one day, and since this song was a last-minute addition, poor Eric (the drummer) had only one day to practice this song before he had to record, and he didn’t really know the cues. I just remember Sven wildly gesticulating as he conducted Eric’s studio session. Cameron put an immense amount of energy into this song, I feel like this one is his baby.
Purchase ‘Ultra Ego’ on Bandcamp HERE and follow Feed Me Jack’s happenings on facebook HERE. Review by Jonny Gleadell.
