Boston
Review & interview by Daz Lawrence, UK:
There’s something slightly religious about Dyr Faser. As I type this, listening to their new album through headphones which may have melted into my ears, there’s a towering, churchy, immoveability to their music. Guitar riffs punch you in the chest, rise to the rafters and circle back down to slap you about the chops. Economical, effective and chastening. Their songs rarely end up resembling the form they materialised from and have that alluring quality which makes you think: “how did you come up with this?”. One crazed mind could concoct strange, mismatched melodies perhaps but for two to synchronize and spit out such mutated children is just plain weird.
Dyr Faser are multi-instrumentalists Eric Boomhower and Amelia May – trios are so passé. Beyond the droning synths, bowed guitars and flutes, they’ve added drums to their sound, which one might think is working backwards – in fact, it is working backwards and that’s rather what make Dyr Faser so endearing. Their music is all about tone and feeling – I honestly don’t know if I’ve ever analysed their lyrics for a second, indeed, I have no idea even if they’re real words being sung, they simply melt into the maelstrom.
Over the course of well over a dozen releases, the band have often threatened to tumble fully into shoegaze, the last refuge for running out of ideas. Here, there is more of a feeling that this has been addressed – the deeply affecting wooshes of sound are more akin to the drone kings of Seattle, Earth and Sunn O))), with the singing simply an added bonus. The crashing percussion on ‘Kinghead’ sounds like some colossal beast rampaging towards you; heart pounding, cavernous gob drooling. ‘New Rule’ sounds like ‘The Twilight Zone‘ theme being attached to a giant rubber band and twanged into molten eyeballs. It’s exhilarating and disorientating with the same edge of malevolence that early Monster Magnet had. ‘Life Form’ is Dyr Faser at their most 60s, all oil-soaked light bulbs and projected images of doomed operations. There are moments of Sonic Youth but with a more inviting buffet on offer – you’d be happy to have a couple of sausage rolls at the former but you’d stay for space dust at Dyr Faser’s place.
Dyr Faser are proof that the DIY approach to music doesn’t have to mean succumbing to algorithms, pay for play or treating music as purely a hobby. You have the freedom to do what you want, without boundaries put in place by someone who wants to sell you rather than help you. From hand-drawn album covers and gig posters to bowed yawning guitars and funereal flutes, Dyr Faser remind you that with the raw energy of your imagination you can create pictures and change lives. Many people may treat music as transient flotsam and in some respects, they’re right. If you let it slip through your fingers or don’t treat the listening experience as something that you as the listener have a duty to meet the musician half-way, then you’re left with emptiness and half-caught conversations. There’s a ritual to listening to Dyr Faser and it’s worth committing to. - Daz Lawrence weirdbones.co.uk/dyr-faser-phantom-electric-review-and-interview/
Review by Rock and Roll Fables:
Dyr Faser Create A Calculated Cacophony On Cathartic Phantom Electric.
It’s albums like the one Boston’s Dyr Faser’s recently put out that back our regular rule that starting any complete “Year End” list is a moot point until almost the very end and regarding Phantom Electric, we pretty much guarantee that you’re not likely to find any other artist in the area that sounds quite like this duo because the tracks found within this eight track full-length are similarly electric and eclectic, psychedelic and psionic so buckle up!
“Unusual Power” starts our journey with Amelia May (Vocals, guitar, flute, bow guitar) and Eric Boomhower (Vocals, guitar, drums, Univox) serving as our guides with May’s ethereal vocals flowing across the calculated cacophony like a specter. That haunting quality carries over into the upbeat “Life Form” with Boomhower taking over lead vox on a song that’s a natural mix of early Sonic Youth and The Raveonettes while “Rainer’s Game” is a trippy, ahem, trip. “Killing Our God” goes deeper into the trip with static drumming keeping the count for a Folk Implosion meets Tab-era Monster Magnet ditty that finds May once again behind the mic and crooning out some sweeping verses over the fuzzed out riffs.
“Abandon” is dreamy but with a certain clarity as it comes out of the previous haze for an upbeat ditty as May’s broad delivery elevates the track beyond your typical lo-fi Indie fare with “The Way To Understanding” going back down a darker path for an almost The Doors-esque journey before “Kinghead” thumps and shimmers and adds some more bluesy elements into the Dyr Faser aural arsenal. Phantom Electric closes with the swelling “New Rule” as May’s flute playing lies on display front and center which segue’s nicely into some tight vocal harmonies alongside Boomhower before it all ends with the boil becoming a simmer.
- rockandrollfables.com/dyr-faser-create-a-calculated-cacophony-on-cathartic-phantom-electric/
DYR FASER’s tracks
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