Fear 2 Stop - Enter the Eclipse (2005 remix)

Hear The Track Here

Coming up on my fourth successive year of reviewing on Soundclick, I look back and see a mountain of tracks that have come and gone through my ears. Some of those tracks I have still but the majority have gone the way of all things. Still it was a surprise to see that the artist I mention the most over that period of time is none other than Fear 2 Stop. Now that may have to do with their prodigious output (125 songs on their page and counting...) or the fact that I've reviewed near on most of them. S'funny, the band that makes me work the hardest at reviewing is also the one I have struggled with most in all that time.

See, I'm a great believer in 'doin' it fo' yo'self' and having a unique (or as close to it as possible) sound and style, and Fear 2 Stop does score highly on that. They haven't done as well in my musical critiques though, but they keep on rolling along - and that can only be a good thing. Taking criticism is hard - as I know to my own cost - and the ability to take it onboard then move on is to be valued. Only an opinion, after all. The one word best used to describe what F2S come up with is 'strange'. Sometimes it connects with me, others it doesn't but judging from reactions to their tracks over the years there IS an audience for what Fear 2 Stop do and that's another good thing.

We need all the strangeness we can get in the Clone Age.

Enter the Eclipse (2005 remix) is exactly what you should expect from this highly individualistic trio; the track certainly hangs together right enough and indeed has a certain charm. This is - as always - offset by the particular musical insanity F2S always delivers. Your mind veers between 'hey this is really neat' to 'surely they shouldn't be doing that in public' as if it were a pinball game, and therein lies the beauty of this band for me. The music you hear isn't (I guarantee you) like anything else you may here, the ears question constantly the oddity of music that shouldn't be doing what it does, but does it anyway. In some ways, this is constructed as if it were a video game track, as is most of the instrumentation; there's even a jaunty 'Hi I'm some silly animal-thing' feel about it that - to me - only emphasises it's charm. A nice, clear production on this too...thumbs up. Odd. I have to agree. Somehow charming though, and to my ears one of the better F2S tracks I've heard. And so....

Highly Recommended for the strange at heart.