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FELT (European edition)

Reviews

Wood you like to hear brand new music years in the making? Now finally available to you the home listener. Our new album feels smooth as polished pine and light as balsa. The groove is in the grain of San Francisco, Burning Man and eclectic city campfires. Hop on the hobby horse and ride it home.

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From the press
“Compared to HATFYR's last record, Shock and Struts, Felt is streamlined, restrained, clean. But then again, these are the facts you requested and as is their nature, they deliver the goods with a stylistic excess.

The result is that Felt is at once understated and deluxe, careful and daring, contrived and pathetic. As usual, the band moves through the breadth of pop music. But unlike say, Ween (a certain influence), The Facts don't quote genres: they metabolize them. The result is that while listeners may hear strains of Prince or Bongwater or Flaming Lips these same listeners will always here The Facts: songs that are round and luscious, happy and crafty, clever and sprawling, a grab bag of boys, girls, guitars, trumpets, beats, harmonies, samples, and strumming.

Three different songwriters and four different singers take turns showing off -- from the Prince-laden Peas to the bubbilicious stereophonic Tulip to the boy ballad, Remember, this record covers a lot of territory. It's inspiring to hear an album that offers so much -- and that's downright joyous to boot.

Like the best pop music, Felt is complex, odd, familiar and unfamiliar, embedded in pop tradition and utterly and thoroughly itself. And as is usually the case with such music, it takes some time, some patience, precisely because it proffers the new. Listen well to this record and you will be felt. Check out "Tulip" and the truly exquisite, crafty "Homebody".
» Aquarius Records

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With their new album, FELT, the musicians have created a record more like modern art than trendy pop pastiche: Its pleasing surfaces reveal sonic shades and textures that grow more complex with each listen...FELT is the group's twisted take on soul music...Chen's playful falsetto vocals on the stripped-down "Peas" recalls Beck's plastic soul on Midnight Vultures. The loping "Pony" has a kitschy They Might Be Giants edge, accented by turntables, banjo, and the oft-present cello, which also shows up on the chill-out exercise "Firefly." "Tulip" offers Bowie-like swagger without the machismo, with double-tracked, ethereal vocals from Lessey.
» Nancy Einhart, San Francisco Weekly, 29 Jan 2003

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"San Francisco's HATFYR are evolving into a serious pop band. A serious pop band that still knows good music should be fun. FELT may seem like a muted version of the band...but there is magic deep in these subtle grooves...The new slab has an influx of innocent soul, and...transcends several genres in that all too rare bit of music lightning. Deep listening reveals delicate layers, charming aural surprises and hooks where before there were none. It's a record of discovery..."
» John Sekerka, Thrust Electronic

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From our research assistants
“I lit some candles and proceeded to listen to the whole thing twice through. Unbelievable. Shivers and tears- no joke. Felt is an appropriate title because one truly feels this album both in emotional waves and at the root of self. The mix is incredible-layers of sound moving in and out of space like shadow puppets on my eardrums. Pony blew me away as the song was dissected and reinvented like a kaliedescope throughout and yet the song was always there. Firefly and Diamonds are melodic bliss. I love the back and forth of the male and female vocals on Circulator, a fitting end track. Homebody is haunting. Variation and Remember are radio hits. The whole album gels”.
» Adam Schraft, starseedmusic.com

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“Had a most excellent 45 minutes late last night, rain bending branches, you and yours whispering such sweet somethings directly into my body and, oh, it was good: Felt is a series of pay offs, feel ups, grope downs, etc etc.... “
» Dan C, joyfulcomplexity.com

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“Nice vocal sexiness. Nice "Weeeeee! Splash. Do you want to do it again?" The best song on the album, upon first listen again: MARATHON BeeBoppy, HipHoppy, JazzMoppy...I listened again and again and again, despite the Surgeon General's warnings.”
» Michael V.

 


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