FINAL FANTASY
Final Fantasy Has A Good Home
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· For all the Nintendo-loving band camp homos. For the rest of you there’s more than enough Arcade Fire connections.
Owen Pallett’s musical resumé plays like a who’s who of Canadian indie royalty. A longtime player and arranger with The Hidden Cameras, The Constantines, Gentleman Reg and (most infamously as of late) The Arcade Fire, Pallett’s prodigious abilities on the violin have elevated everything he’s touched, making good records into great ones.
Besides his Arcade Fire duties (big-time hype means big-time touring), Pallett has also christened 2005 as the driving force behind two of the year’s finest records – Les Mouches’ scary You Mean More To Me Than 1,000 Christians, and now (solo as Final Fantasy) Final Fantasy Has a Good Home.
At times coming off like a male Laurie Anderson (albeit one more interested in pretty pop figures than sound experimentation, which is saved for Les Mouches), Final Fantasy keeps the focus clearly on Pallett’s violin – plucked, cut-up, sampled and beautifully bowed. "This is the Dream of Win & Regine" maintains the driving force of its title with surprisingly minimalist means and "The CN Tower Belongs to the Dead" gets just about as high as its subject, based on the simplest of keyboard patterns and spiralling fiddle. Given the lad’s talent (and behind-the-scenes influence), the self-mocking "Learn to Keep Your Mouth Shut, Owen Pallett" is a welcome toss-off near the album’s exhilarating, but never exhausting end.
LES MOUCHES
You're Worth More To Me Than 1000 Christians
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· Prenez garde des mouches, ils vont vous mangent vivant!
Describing Les Mouches is almost easy – a bit like a game composed of dual extremes and juxtapositions between the unexpected. The best one I’ve come up with today: "Imagine Julie Doiron were she born a moody prodigal fag with Tourette’s syndrome." The group’s leader, the slim bible-study outcast Owen Pallett, should have "Mad Genius" written across his forehead (if he hasn’t carved it in with a pocket knife already).
"Divorce the Ones You Love" offers up a sweet lilting country-guitar motif and melody, backed by gentle clapping hands and stomping heels, but it’s meshed with Pallett’s spastic random violin noisebursts (one of the few times he picks up his primary instrument on the album). It’s a bit like those quietly tuneful but still kind of fun moments on the Bonnie and Clyde soundtrack after each gunfight, mashed up with the cutting strings of Psycho (and just about as soothing). "Carload of Whatever" is one of the prettiest yet scariest things I’ve ever heard. After threatening "I’ll take pictures of myself giving head," Pallett moans, "I can’t find a noose / I’m out of poison / I’m out of patience," finally melting down into the song’s drum-driven climax, "I want your blood on me!" It’s every bit as beautiful (and frightening) as the group’s infamous cover of The Carpenters’ "(They Long To Be) Close To You" from last winter’s Blood Orgy!!! EP – a transformation of innocent melody into a jagged no-wave masterpiece.
Despite Pallett’s already envious catalogue (lead violinst for the Hidden Cameras, he’s appeared with everyone from Royal City to The Constantines), the quick development of Les Mouches into the coiled machine of 1000 Christians is doubly impressive. That his solo project Final Fantasy – one man, one violin, one battalion of effects and loop pedals – is every bit as good at an altogether different modus operandi, welcomes Pallett as one of this country’s finest, most challenging musicians recording today. (Thankfully, for those keeping track, Final Fantasy’s next release comes under the Kill Rock Stars banner, instead of those pesky impossible-to-find limited-edition CDs).
Perilously juggling chaos and beauty, even when they seem to be losing their grip, Les Mouches, and Owen Pallett in particular, are always in control.
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