Friends of Friends - Right Direction

Hear The Track Here

One of the tracks that seemed to turn up everywhere you looked in 2006 was Table Fate by an artist called HELLbus. Aaahh, now you know what I'm talking about eh? Yep one of the biggest Soundclick success stories of the past year, HELLbus - basically a one man band sometimes masquerading as kulmalfi - has become a staple sound in my home, and many others. So whytf am I bleating on about HELLbus? Surely Friends of Friends should be the subject matter. Yeah, but there I have ye, varmint. See, young kulmalfi has been stepping off the 'bus just lately. He even turned up tinkling the ivories on a recent Azoora track; cream mixed with cream - yummy.

There is no information on the Soundclick as to who or what constitutes Friends of Friends, but I did note that this is a track that is still be added to (live drums, extraneous noises etc) but we deal with what we got right? Reading between the lines (and the use of the word 'we') I presume that FoF is some kind of collaborative effort and we'll leave Jon (for it is he) to explain further. Certainly Right Direction does has a touch of the demo about it, but not so a casual listener would notice. Nitpickers would, and I did but nonetheless all I would ask for is more definition on the instruments and a denser sound (one that would probably be provided by the aforementioned live drums). Yep, a good mix and then this track would rock.

Not that it doesn't do that already but the arrangement, performance (especially vocally) and feel of the track kinda demand a much more serious mix than this rather lightweight version. At bottom, Right Direction is an incredibly well realised Alternative rock song that has so many echoes of other things I could listen to it for hours (haven't yet, but I am getting there...) It's the kind of track you can feel instantly at home with, especially if this genre already floats your boats. There is an almost classic rock feel to some of the instrumentation (there's a Who synth line in there, as well as a Stones rhythmic lilt) and it's that kind of detail that will keep me listening to it while I am waiting for the final mix to appear. If that mix turns out to be anything like as good as the song, this will be a shoo-in for a Must Have. As it is....

Highly Recommended. Class song.