Fungus Dace - I Find It Really Hard

Hear The Track Here

As you know I do a LOT of reviews but I have to say, in all honesty, that this review is one I have absolutely not been looking forward to. Not because of anything musical, Dace is a new name to me or at least was a little while ago, so anything i said about his music would be premature. Nope it was because Dace absolutely doesn't like my reviews. Fair enough, you say, lots of people don't like my reviews and - as it happens - I don't care whether people like them or not. It isn't why I do it. No, my real problem is the same as always, how objective can I be when provoked? Regular readers know that I've had some very hairy situations down the years because of what I say but it hasn't stopped me yet, and neither will it. I do take a certain pride that in my objectivity, even when that same objectivity can be taken as a partisan view. What's the big deal? It's just an opinion. Speaking of which....

Dace (that's his name, Fungus is his music) is an improv artist which means that he pretty much plays whatever comes into his mind, or springs to his fingertips. Now if that sounds easy to you I have to say you probably need major help, because GOOD improv is very, very difficult to master and it comes down to knowing exactly what your instrument is capable of, in any given situation. For example, some of the best blues players I ever heard played directly out of their heads, never looked at a piece of music, nor needed accompaniment and the result was mesmerising. Blues is at the root of I Find It Really Hard but not as we know it Jim. Dace takes that root and literally makes a musical and textual flow that, to be honest, I found surprisingly familiar. Dace supplies a voiceover rather than an actual song, and that is where I found it so easy to like, in fact he reminds me, in some ways of Soundclick's Larry Ludwick - certainly in sound.

So while I wouldn't actively search out something like this (it's billed as Art Rock) I must admit I was pleasantly surprised by the style, and the ideas being expressed. Essentially, the track comes down to Dace describing how he makes his music, and obviously he finds it really hard. That isn't what you would be thinking though because the music that's going on underneath this tale, is stacked with enough guitar sounds and licks to make even the most avid plank spanker want to hear it more a few times. Sure, it won't interest some people because its the spoken word and I know for a fact that it puts people off but where Dace scores it to make it flow wonderfully along with the music. If this is the way Fungus Dace goes, then it's fair to say there aren't going to be too many people that sound like this, and that's a benefit in itself.

Interesting, odd and involving. Highly Recommended noodling.