Customer Reviews

Fog

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Take a little trip through the mind of Andrew Broder aka Fog. Apparently someone forgot to clue Mr. Broder in on the fact that music has genres, walls that should be left up, and bridges not to be crossed. Maybe he knows exactly what he's doing. Maybe he's watching Beck's genre-blending antics rocket him towads success and stardom and Fog has decided to follow. But for some reason I don't think so. Fog is a million times more sincere. He wears his heart on his sleave and it looks good there. The album has a beautifully cohesive feel from beginning to end, it makes you feel as though you are walking through the Fog.

Some highlights of the album:

"A Word of Advice" opens the album with MF Doom guest MCing and giving you some words of wisdom on how to live your life.

The albums first single "Pneumonia" is a tale of Fog's brush with the disease itself. Beautiful lyrics telling of silverfish, casserole quality, and revelations of life. This track would be a top 10 single in a perfect world.

"Check Fraud" is the albums next single, Broder explains this track as being about "the guilt of being wealthy". Japanese flute scratches abound.

A burst of guitar and scratched drums open "Truth & Laughing Gas" and get the second half of the album of to a flying start. This is one of the most perfect meldings of guitar and turntables accomplished to date.

The albums closing tracks of "Ghoul Expert" and "And Stay Out" showcase Broder's penchant for writing anthemic rock ballads on par with Radiohead. Fog harmonizes lovley melodies with himself and lets you slowly emerge from this murky world and back into you own.

Another amazing release from Ninja Tune and definitely a contender for album of the year. My only complaint is why did Ninja Tune remove two tracks from Fog's original independant release of the album? These tracks, "Heartcrusher" and "Just A Boy Growing Up", are beautiful pieces of the album and deserve to be heard. Let's hope Ninja releases them in the future.

I decided to write this review because these other two idiots had such horrible reviews for such an absolutely brilliant piece of musical genius. This record is subtle, yet moving. Songs like Pneumonia and Check Fraud stand out in particular. I absolutely can't get enough of this album and anyone who would call it a "horrible" record either has only given it a brief listen (every listen you discover amazing new subtlties and nuances) or is a total review hack. This, along with Ether Teeth and 10th Avenue Freakout are the best of Fog (I wasn't a huge fan of Ditherer however) and they will be appreciated by anyone with taste. Once again, this record deserves praise, and it saddens me greatly to see bad reviews like the two above on Amazon. Get this one, you will not be dissapointed.

just saw these guy's in boston last monday and what i want to know is, where the hell was everybody else! i know it was a monday but what else did you have to do that was so freakin' important...well the small crowd added to the intimaticy of this wonderful group...they played as though hundreds of people showed up instead of the ten plus...you could easily tell how wholeheartedly devoted they were to their unique sound (which any discription would fall far short from what was being produced, so i won't try)...please check this fantastic group out, you won't be disappointed...

It's hard to accept what we don't understand. if exprimental music is what you are interested or you enjoy all means of music, this is for you. Andrew's Fog is very dope, featuring mf doom???? and dose one!!!! If you are a Cloudead fan, an anticon fan, or a fan of out there music than listen. but it's definitely not recycled bossa nova trip hop, which ninja tune has been known to release. It's beyond definition.

The forward-thinking blokes at Ninja Tune give us the self-titled debut by Fog, a Minnesotan who blends hip-hop rhythms with indie-rock sensibilities. Fog actually shares a musical affinity with fellow hip-hoppers cLOUDDEAD, and although Fog veers away from MCs, they deliver with some impressive turntable work. The "try anything" attitude is refreshing, especially in this age of stale and predictable hip-hop, and the indie-rock vocals and guitar of "Pneumonia" contrast the slightly off-kilter drum rhythm. "Check Fraud" and "We're a Mess," likewise, deconstruct down-home ditties into something more than the sum of their stratches. But the aesthetic isn't yet fully formed throughout, however; there are a few tracks with too many moments of aimless doodling (or worse, electric guitar solos like on "Hitting a Wall"), as if he had temporarily run out of ideas or, like on "Ghoul Expert," those ideas are unfocused. (The solo on "Truth and Laughing Gas," in comparison, actually leads to a climax.) But the haunting "Staring at the Dashboard" and the saddening "And Stay Out" both speak to what Fog does well.

against my better judgment, i picked up the fog album. my reasoning was that maybe they just picked a bad single and that the rest of the album would be better. and it is. moving between bizarre guitar samples, leftfield beats, and lots of crazy sounds, fog creates a world of noise that appeals to both the indie and the leftfield crowd. pneumonia really was the only possible single from the album that can stand on its own, so i don't blame ninja tune for releasing that. however, the rest of the album seems to be so much better. fans of kid koala's scratch records and other leftfield bands will enjoy this romp through sound. it does require your full attention to appreciate it, and shouldn't be listened to at work, or while trying to concentrate on something else. a true listening piece.

Sometimes, mainstream heads, just need to be POPped. Kokopelectronic, reviewer before or after this, has a large white head, that talks of mainstream performers and tries to compare them to artists that are more embedded in the head. This artist cannot be POPped. He lurks deep inside your mind, with a copious amount of puss. The texture of this puss is solid, with critical IDM beats and beautiful atmospheric scratching.

With a hard squeeze or listen, this album, will grow and expand on your head, but definitely, cannot be POPped. Beware of all white heads, they provide the deep murky simulacra that we all have to trudge through, to find the truth...

I had no idea what to expect with this one. I bought it on a whim, and was quite turned off by the first few listens. All I can really say about the style is that it's dreary, dull, and almost annoying at parts, which I think the artist was actually shooting for. It really does sound like he was trying to make some strange amalgamation of DJ Shadow's "Endtroducing," Radiohead's "Amnesiac," and Aphex Twin's "Drukqs" sparingly set to Trent Reznor's words. Well, it didn't work. Maybe it's just that I really don't like the sounds of DJ Shadow and Aphex Twin (I'm a huge Radiohead fan, though). I guess I could see where this would appeal to some people's tastes. There seems to be a large following for disparate noise-music. And it does have its good elements (I'm just having trouble putting a finger on those). I think this guy really COULD put out some good stuff - He just needs to find a slightly different path I think. So if you like disparate noise-music, this is the album for you. Otherwise, look elsewhere.

I bought the original independent version of this cd, which has 2 more tracks. The ninja tune version also has a track not on the indie version. I live in Minneapolis and heard all the hype so I decided to get the CD. This cd is horrible. I love all kinds of music, including most avant-garde fare like kid koala, Dose One, cLOUDDEAD, etc. The music on FOG is largely abrasive, annoying, and simple. The lyrics are trite, and usually replace content with unintelligible abstract metaphor. Broder's singing is poor at best. The sole place that this music succeeds is in concept- hey lets make a turntable part of an atmospheric rock band- good concept, horrible execution. This band gets a lot of hype, mostly from people that don't recognize that DIFFERENT doesn't necessarily mean GOOD. I would give this cd zero stars, but Amazon wont take that as a review, and I guess you could use it as a coaster or for skeet shooting or something.

The Fog live on stage is much better. Worth seeing if you have a chance, but not something to go out of your way for.