quarta-feira, 21 de novembro de 2018

Throbs with The Fog Ensemble - An Interview


Thessaloníki é a principal cidade da região grega da Macedônia, e é exatamente de terras tão exóticas e excêntricas que aterriza nas páginas do TBTCI neste momento o trio The Fog Ensemble.

Os caras se descrevem como "concrete shoehaze", um termo esquisito e deveras excêntrico tal qual a procedência dos caras, mas a sonoridade soa bem conhecida.

Nada de vozes por aqui, os caras centram-se em densas paisagens instrumentais, gerando atmosferas por vezes angustiantes, em outras pairam tranquilidade e caos sobrepondo-se aleatoriamente. 

Não é shoegaze, não é post rock, não é experimental, é tudo isso junto em doses cavalares.

Escute alto e boa fritação.


***** Interview with The Fog Ensemble


Q. When did The Fog Ensemble begin? Tell us about the history...
Actually we knew each other long before we decided to form a band!But after many years thinking about it, on Christmas eve of 2011 Antonis (Karakostas::guitars and programming) dropped the idea of forming a band while we were all out together with friends celebrating. So in early 2012 the band was formed and after a few months we went into a studio and started playing music together.

So far we have two albums out, our first called "The Fog Ensemble" (2015/Mellotron Recordings) and our second called "Throbs" which just came out on October the 19th on Inner Ear Records!

Q: Who are your influences?
Definitely early '90s shoegaze,the groove of the so called “Madchester” sound and a little bit of the trip-hop classics!

Q. Make a list of 5 albums of all time…
That’s difficult because it changes all the time but let’s say the following..

1 Loveless-My Bloody Valentine
2 Mezzanine-Massive Attack
3 Goo-Sonic Youth
4 Pills Thrills and Bellyaches-Happy Mondays
5 Revolver-The Beatles

Q. How do you feel playing live?
We don't play live very often,but when we do, we give our very best and we do enjoy it to the maximum!

Q. How do you describe The Fog Ensemble´s sounds?
"Concrete Shoehaze"

Q: Tell us about the process of recording the songs ?
Usually Antonis comes up with the main idea for a track, works on it for a little while mainly on his laptop and guitar and then brings it to the studio where Nicholas (Kondylis:bass) and George (Nanopoulos:drums) add their stuff so as to become completed.Sometimes this takes a lot of time because we all throw ideas to each other about the instrumentation but sometimes it comes to us so naturally that we finish it pretty quickly and we move on to the next track.

Q. Which new bands do you recommend?
The are not new but Sleaford Mods are a band that we do enjoy a lot!

Also Echo Ladies "Pink Noise" and Mark Peters "Innerland" are both great records that we listened to lately.

Q: Which band would you love to make a cover version of?
The Smiths "How soon is now" but we'll have to find someone to do the vocals because we are playing instrumental music and none of us can sing!

Q: What are your plans for the future?
Well, we’ll see how things will turn out with our second album and concentrate on promoting it by playing live as much as we can. Other than that, we’ve already started writing music for album number 3!

Q: Any parting words?
Thank you very much for your invitation to this interview,we are big fans of the “blog that celebrates itself” for years now! Have a great time and always listen to music and try to find new music as well.

There’s so much cool stuff out there!
https://www.facebook.com/thefogensemble/
https://thefogensemble-innerear.bandcamp.com/album/throbs 
https://thefogensemble1.bandcamp.com/album/the-fog-ensemble
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Thanks