Customer Reviews

Strangers From the Universe

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

 

 

this has rapidly become one of my favorite albums ever. it's dark and experiments with a fine-tuned mix of something like blonde redhead, kraftwerk and brian eno. i find it more resolved than most of their other releases and more purposeful in its sampling of noise. it ranges in all directions, from aggressive to soothing, from deconstructivist to powerrock... all in all melds to one hell of a piece of music. flawless but not overproduced. brilliant. it's like a "revolver" of the 90s in terms of its complexity and genius, and yet completely unique to itself. inventive and crazy.

One of the best albums of the 90s--really. No one seems to have ever heard this band. The entire album represents the pinnacle of weird pop especially "My Pal the Tortoise," "Lightsocket," and "Operation." It's more listenable than the preceding albums because of more pristine production and the lack of "Feller filler." Also it features such "un pop" instruments as the electric banjo and the optigan. Begin here and then acquire Mother of All Saints.

the line on this thing is that it's the most accesible of their releases and that it is. although they are always off-kilter and intriguing too often their other discs really make you work for the actual songs contained within. here though they are as focused as they get and the songs are charming, and a bit abrasive, but songs they are with lots of good singing and a wealth of odd, interesting arrangements. definitely cracked but playful and inventive and still pop, like it or not.

I have this one on vinyl, and it's one of my favorite releases from a favorite band. Strange thing about TFUL 282 - their covers give you a sense of the styles on the inside. Like its pink color, this has more of a 'pop' flavor. If you're just getting into this band, I think this is one you should seek.

This record is a far departure from the record previous---the lo-fi, atonal masterpeice Mother Of All Saints---moving further into their own decidibly quirky and bizarre take on pop music. There's an early Talking Heads meets pre-ambient Taking Tiger Mountain-era Brian Eno feel going on in "My Pal The Toitoise" and "Socket" (that is, the songs are upbeat and funky with a quirky edge), fused ofcourse with their expected adventures into noise and atonal melodies. After these 2 gems, a short little peice of far-out Feller filler commenses(one of several; but, as another reviewer pointed out, the fillers here are smaller and less abundant, adding merely to add an interesting tie-over or intermission into the next song).
Then comes "Hundreds Of Years", a memorable mini-epic that travels through several little movements before destroying itself in an aggressive little ball of insanity. "Guillotine" is one of the few directly pretty songs on the album, it envokes a sort of airy shoegazer folk sort of sound that slowly builds while the Thinking Fellers sing softly and morosely "I saw you in a lineup/You deserve something finer". Then it builds a little higher as a chorus of weird wobbling voices overcome everything, before collapsing and slowly dissappearing into the mist.
"Guillotine" is followed brilliantly by "Uranium", a little peice of filler that layers upon a frightening guitar noise until fading away into "February". At first, this song follows in the footsteps of the first 2 tracks with its Eno/Heads-esque sound, but just then 2 dueling guitars come together playing a wonderful riff that can only be compared to a fast gamelan or something, and for the rest of the song, it ventures between the two styles. After another spooky filler track with "Pull My Pants Up Tight", "Cup Of Dreams"---one of the album's strongest points---follows. THe song starts with the scratchy sounds of an Optigan playing a faded carnival song from yesteryear, before a powerful bass and guitar riff takes over and fills you with uncertain tension. All of a sudden, a pretty shoegazer riff strait out of My Bloody Valentine's Loveless fills the speakers with a bubbly sound, just as an effects-coded chorus of voices chant "Scrub a dub dub, showers fall from heaven/Scrub a dub dub, rinse your worries away". After several repeats of the main bass line, the optigan introduction returns, but this time with the Fellers chanting in a goofy chorus that underlines some dark, misanthropic lyrics: "Let's squash the life out of everything and cheer through a swanky ghost/Let's bathe in a cup of dreams and share in a saucy toast".
"THe Oxenmaster"-another cute little filler track. "The Operation" is another fine multi-part noise pop song. It actually features Anne singing in a chorus that sounds an awful lot like a song off Taking Tiger Mountain that I can't pinpoint right now, but if you've heard it, you'll know what I'm talking about. "The Piston and THe Shaft" has a more mid-tempo R&B-rock groove about it with a catchy little chorus strait from the 60's (or atleast a Tarantino film), and a little Beach Boys-esque surf bridge to top it off. In the chorus, the male vocalist makes his best David Byrne impression yet.
"Communication" is both the most interesting and most brief filler track on the album, comprising of an otherwordly blues run-off accompanied by more wobbly voices from beyond. We leave the album with the melancholy, vaudevillian waltz of "Noble Experiment". Played almost entirely on optigon, it foretells the sad story of the state of the human race, and how it's getting so bad that we'll have to find new creatures to be. It's the most moving track on the album, and leaves you with the thought: Maybe they are the new creatures to be. Maybe they are the strangers from the universe.

Their swansong to be sure.
I've all the Feller's albums, but this one is of paramount importance for it's synonomous with life in a most perturbing way. As it all stands at fun/truth. They are such a discordant, yet cohesive band. Very few albums can bring out so much joy and understanding of the sadness of humanity, albeit... the music is uplifting.
Crazy in proportion. These people are really Thinking Feller's indeed.
Some have called them not Can. So what. Can is Can. The Feller's are most unique. A little Residentsesque to boot.
I sense a little Mother's in The Operation's formula.
But again unique over-all. It's as if they are the Mekon's gone haywire, which IS a mesmerizing feat in itself.
How, how, how, can one describe such a blend of music? It encompasses all and everything. Ouch.... They hurt they're so go and well-equiped. Just words?...
From beginning fun to lullabies with a bent on humanity in disgrace, Noble experiment sums up a cruddy species of animal, whose time is overdue to extinction.
All of their albums have filler. But it's all wonderfully genuine.
Stranger's in The Universe, I believe is the most listenable, but you'll want more and you can find it. Start here though. Most top 40 losers could never understand a band such as these guys/gals. All the more for us few who don't see life through rose colored glasses. And can really appreciate a taste of intentional humourous sarcasm and hilarity, including hooks.
This record; if I were stuck on an island would be on my top ten to be stuck with.... Every decade brings in the fanfare of purity in bands. Others, in this vain might be Pavement, Polvo,
Royal Trux and Ed Hall. However, The Feller's are so original and free-thinking feller's. I think genious is subjective, so I am biased. Can't stand crappy music. Don't buy this album if you are a nobody. Buy it if you are somebody. Sombody as special as the members of the band. Somebody who can think like a Thinking Feller of which there are but afew thousand in the world at most. Let them be in their greatness. Stay away if you've no clue of your own thought proccesses. The Thinking Feller's are exactly what they call themselves. Stay away if you're a typical dullard,(The rest of the world). Incredible music indeed. Can't have taste for them if you eat Twinky's and are bred on white bread, all you white bread eater's of the globe.