{"id":4442,"date":"2017-01-07T14:57:58","date_gmt":"2017-01-07T22:57:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/furiousgreencloud.com\/wordpress\/?p=4442"},"modified":"2017-12-22T21:24:14","modified_gmt":"2017-12-23T05:24:14","slug":"idea-fire-company-the-synthetic-elements","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/furiousgreencloud.com\/wordpress\/blog\/2017\/01\/07\/idea-fire-company-the-synthetic-elements\/","title":{"rendered":"Idea Fire Company – The Synthetic Elements"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Idea<\/a><\/p>\n

Or: “Why I Keep Buying Idea Fire Company Records”<\/p>\n

As many of you are not aware, Idea Fire Company (IFCO) has a new record. Or so the story goes, as IFCO appears\u00a0to be the most notoriously obscure band to make regular appearances across a host of experimental music media in the United States and abroad. It seems every time I read a review, check a promo blurb\u00a0online, or peruse the numerous<\/a> essays<\/a> by Scott Foust himself, mention is made of being ‘under-rated’, ‘under-appreciated’, ‘obscure’ or ‘ignored’. Of course it makes little sense that\u00a0references of this type could be numerous. It may be that my reading habits err to the narrowly consumed (possible); it may also be that in our vain attempts to categorize music that often defies categorization we fall upon the genres\u00a0‘art brut’ or ‘outsider’ and\u00a0couch its patterns of consumption in the relevant way\u00a0(also possible); of course, it may simply\u00a0be legit (likely).<\/p>\n

Indeed, had I not heard of them through word of mouth over 10 years ago, it’s possible I would have only now stumbled across them while trolling through the older discography of one of contemporary electroacoustic’s current darlings: Graham Lambkin, with whom they played alongside in Tart<\/a> and The Shadow Ring<\/a>\u00a0about\u00a0300 years ago. One can never quite tell if it’s a case of critics favouring IFCO’s\u00a0music over a wider audience, or if a silent\u00a0(let’s be honest)\u00a0minority consumes their songs with disregard for the oblivion offered them by society at large. Whatever the case, they’ve been doing it for a long time, and I’ve purchased\/stolen\/listened to pretty well every single Idea Fire Company record, CD, 7″ and cassette<\/a> that exists. Why?<\/p>\n

To briefly return to IFCO’s reception, alongside those references to obscurity are affectionate words\u00a0relating\u00a0the singularity of vision, intimacy, love and care, and humour omnipresent in Scott Foust and Karla Borecky’s music. At a time when irony\u00a0(in the Kierkegaardian\u00a0sense, not the Morisettian) has\u00a0disappeared down the rabbit hole<\/a>, it is these\u00a0traits that\u00a0continually attract us back to Idea Fire Company. Post-popular music is a scene where a good number\u00a0of artists are either amateurs home-recording utterly forgettable vaporwave-influenced faux-analogue synth\u00a0loops or adepts pursuing their 2nd post-graduate degree while producing sterile hyper-conceptual -isms. While recognizing the contributions\u00a0made by both poles, there is often little middle ground to be found. And that it is precisely where IFCO mines for material. Their experimental\u00a0tracks never lack interesting harmonics and textures, their melodies are always backed with some fascinating dissonance or another, repetitions are presented with purpose\u00a0and improvisations with tact and direction. These two old-timers still\u00a0make albums when everyone knows the album is dead. They are the guilty pleasure that evokes\u00a0no guilt. Why?<\/p>\n