Fear 2 Stop - Weathered Love

Hear The Track Here

No matter how many times I face a Fear 2 Stop review, the process is always the same and has been for years. There's that initial vertigo inducing fall of the stomach, your palms begin to sweat and your mind turns suddenly as blank as...er what was I talking about? I have reviewed, I think it would be fair to say, the vast bulk of their almost 200 releases and the initial impact remains the same, even though the music has changed considerably over the years. They have evolved into a strange electronic/analog hybrid that it would be foolish in the extreme to underestimate, or even predict. Hey, but at least they sound like themselves (Ed: eh?) There is no-one I know who sounds quite like this three peice.

Probably an acquired taste. So spit it out before it chokes you.

Of late we have been hearing a lot of material from Dana Castillo but this is a track primarily from hubby (and main motormouth) Billy and Raymond Proseus. As with all Fear 2 Stop tracks, best approached with an open mind and you never know they might work their strange magic and re-wire your brain in order to accept what they do. Some people, of course, would rather sandpaper their face than listen to Fear 2 Stop and believe me, I can certainly understand the feeling - they are not an easy group. Never have been. Often enough, they come up with surprisingly accessible material and follow that with a string of obscure (no other word for it) tracks that baffle and confuse.

Speaking from a personal level, I always feel that bands like Fear 2 Stop present a challenge, and its a toss up as the track develops as to what variety of experience you are in for - in the case of Weathered Love - it's not going to be pretty. Based around a loose beat, an even looser bass and a fascination with those little white keys right at the very end of the keyboard. Those chalk-on-blackboard notes hat are known to irritate the crap out of 99% of the worlds population, including yours truly. The kind of track that makes you want to scream with the nauseating tenseness of the thing. Which, I suppose, is exactly what this band intended. As I say, not a band to be taken in any way lightly.

Twilight Zone? Pfffttt. They know nozzing. Weirdness personifed.