Foma
Phobos
Little Kiss Records

Foma's debut album, Icecaves, came flying by as a pleasant surprise. I therefore greet Phobos with a cheering, almost childlike glee.

Phobos seems to be an album of the conceptutal kind. Phobos means: 1. one of the two moons of Mars. And: 2. in Greek mythology, the son and of companion of Ares (the God of war), being the God of anxiety, panic, fear. Wow. A horror-theme record? Well, it seems like it's more of a Martian tale. Edward Burch (the Foma chief) and his gang (including Heather Trost of A Hawk and a Hacksaw, Isaac Bonnell of The Foxx and The Alarm Clocks, and Heath Dauberman of Nels Andrews' El Paso Eyepatch!) is up to more of their sweetly fuzzed, twisted and bent, but very catchy and charming indie-pop. Much in the vein or up the alley of (a mixture of) Masters of The Hemisphere (or many other Kindercore-related band), Summer Hymns, and Grandaddy, to pick but a few (and I could be very wrong). But the "first" track, the instrumental preface Don't Burn Babies - which works sort of as a taster, could've been something by the highly energetic and bouncy Swedes bob hund (or their alter ego Bergman Rock).

Phobos is short, clocking in on 31 minutes. I'm a fan of short and efficient albums. The ten songs of this one brings us as far off as Mars. Yes, the two-part (not counting the preface) tale starts with an Introduction, ending with "Departure", before taking us to Dream One, which holds among others "Arrival" (no, not ABBA's...). The CD booklet present a robot which seems to be the leading character along the red thread of the strory. The music is poppy, joyful, appysad, thoughtful, and dreamy. My favorite tracks are: "Kurt's Theme", the Grandaddy-ish "Arrival", the charming "Robot Exoskeleton", the 1-minute-20-secs-long perfectly slow/dazed pop song, and the sweet and quiet closing track "Soft Rains".

I guess (I hope) will reach a bigger audience soon. One day. Buy their records, go see their shows. Love.

Copyright © 2006 Håvard Oppøyen