“I knew we had chemistry…but this new album put it to the test!”
Very few bands in the history of rock ‘n’ roll had the guts to debut with a double-disc set. Among the brave and daring is Austin’s Future Clouds and Radar, helmed by visionary pop maestro Robert Harrison (whom folks may recall from his previous band Cotton Mather).
Their 2007 self-titled bow was critically acclaimed by taste-maker media outlets from coast to coast (“Audacious…but undeniably impressive” - NPR, “Sprawling orchestral art rock” - New Yorker, “Trippy, psychedelic bliss…” -USA Today). Surely there must have been pressure to produce at least an equally impressive follow-up, especially coming from a musically rich environ such as Austin. “I don’t see other artists as competition” enthuses Harrison. “I think there is enough art to go around. Having an infrastructure with such a developed commitment to live music inspires me in that I am aware that what I do will be heard on a larger stage. The talent pool is a plus - it’s hard to walk a city block on South Congress Avenue without passing five people who aren’t staking it all to live out their dream. And that’s different than most towns.”
Welcome to Peoria - the surrealistic sophomore effort from the unpredictable Future Clouds and Radar. Believe it or not, the whole neo-psychedelic shebang sort of happened by accident. Harrison explains: “This album came about as a result of a miscommunication between (producer) Dave Fridman and me. The original plan was for Dave to produce a new record with us and the Fiery Furnaces in a collaborative effort.”
Harrison conjured this rather brilliant idea whilst FC & R were opening for the Furnaces, who initially agreed, but never finalized those all important details. Harrison had assumed that Fridman was booked for June to commence on the faux project, but, lo and behold, the producer called at the end of January 2008 and was anticipating sessions in a mere three weeks!
What’s a band leader to do with no songs and no Fiery Furnaces? “The goof was on my end” Harrison readily admits. “So I wrote this cycle of songs, largely in the Star Apple Kingdom studio. We made a lot of coffee and worked pretty late hours. The band had only just distilled to this line-up (Hollie Thomas, Darin20Murphy, Joshua Zarbo, Kullen Fuchs, and special guests George Reiff and Carlos Sosa), from the loose collective which had defined our work from the first record. I am blessed to have this band with me. Hollie, our keyboardist, was really the first on board and set the bar high. Darin and I have been friends for years and he has silly great talent to burn and then Joshua and I know each other from when I was in Cotton Mather and he was in Spoon. It’s a very natural collaborative.”
Be advised to turn off your mind and float downstream. Peoria swoops, swirls, swishes, and seduces with orchestral aplomb (“Feet On Grass”), big-band garage rock (“Eighteen Months”), gothic grime (“Mortal 926”), freaky folk (“Old Edmund Ruffin”), adventurous avant-garde (“Mummified”), and Sgt. Pepper-esque majesty (“The Epcot View”), to name a few. ”This is a time of people discovering music in new exiting ways” stresses Harrison. “Peoria is designed to be experienced emotionally as a whole album, but most of the pieces contain enough of the entire record’s DNA to effectively transmit, in a shorter form, the psychic gist of the thing. It’s a record that rewards reflection… but there isn’t always time to sit on the family couch and wax philosophical.”
Back on earth, Harrison reveals the significance of the album title and cover art. “Peoria (Illinois), which is the ‘test-marketing’ capital of America, is taken as a metaphor for earthly attainment in this case. We visited Peoria and interviewed people there about their knowledge of Future Clouds and Radar, all the while filming. It was quite eye opening and really funny.”
He continues: “The record is less about death than life but in order to discuss life, it’s crucial to take a sobering look at the illusory fears which govern our perception - the race against the clock. The (cover) art was created by Kevin Whitley from some photos by our friend Sarah Wilson to show how the Texas psychedelic hill country vibe had actually ventured from their compound of the first record to visit America.”
Got that?
--Tom Semioli (December 8, 2008)
Photo: Sarah Wilson
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Future Clouds and Radar’s new album Peoria is out now on Star Apple Kingdom Records.
Future Clouds and Radar Myspace
