In a day and age where space-bar pushing pretty boys like David Guetta and Avicii have become household names, there is a severe lack of hard hitting, down and dirty dance music. With so much of EDM being simple minded, disposable, and nutritionless like your late night trip to the fast food drive-thru window, it’s high time for a hero to come along and pile drive the massive Molly dipping nation onto its big dumb head.
Those heroes might just happen to be three metal and punk loving Neanderthals from Los Angeles. They go by the name Fartbarf and their debut album Dirty Power may very well be the best dance record released in 2014.
Featuring nothing more than a drum kit, extreme vocal modulation, and vintage analog synthesizers, Dirty Power is 37 minutes of fun throwback jams that will make Daft Punk jealous. Opening with Homeless In Heathrow, listeners are greeted with a rich soundscape of swirling licks and hard-hitting low ends that would make Devo proud. While the joys of international airports are so rarely put into song form, Fartbarf manage to sum up the often painful experience in a charming yet chaotic way. However, the party that is Dirty Power truly takes off once you reach the second track, Panopticon. With lyrical references to Coors Light, bar fights, and the almighty GWAR, the power trio has crafted a song so catchy that it becomes stuck in your head before you have had a chance to finish your first listen. The fact that you can’t help but bounce up and down as layer upon layer of analog rumblings slowly build is simply the icing on the cake.
Fartbarf manages to do a little bit of everything on Dirty Power. Your Sky Is Falling features a mid section breakdown that manages to equal the guitar driven chaos of Dillinger Escape Plan while Phantogram would kill to write an introduction as tasty as the one found on Mission At Hand. On Mission, Josh, Brian, and Dan find themselves embarking on an epic voyage into battle. Featuring great space and distance between notes Fartbarf is able to produce a feeling where the music matches the lyrics. One literally feels as if they are hovering as the band sings We took off long ago with mission at hand. They chose the three of us in caravan. Event horizon set for 10 till 10 now. Escaped velocity we’re off again. The three of us, we never reached the land. Imagine Pink Floyd channeling the remarkable story telling of Les Claypool, filtered through a dirty screen of metal marijuana pipe and that is the exact feeling of Mission At Hand.
For those who do need junk food every once in awhile, Fartbarf has you covered, in moderation. Completely mindless yet undeniably delicious, All Systems Go! is the stand-out dance anthem of Dirty Power. With lyrics as hypnotic as they are confident, even Stephen Hawking could get out of this chair and cut a rug as Fartbarf sings They pop. They lock, they jiggle ‘em down, let’s see it on the dance floor. They poppin’, they lockin’, they jigglin’ around, and we see it on the dance floor. Dance hard everybody. This song’s the jam so let’s get them to follow the beat.
Another interesting moment on Dirty Power is the tantalizing instrumental Hero Of Time. Channeling all the good aspects of Muse, the nearly four minute sonic voyage features thunderous drums and Earth shaking riffs while feeling as if it could be the theme to a spaghetti western set in outer space. If the fuzzed out vocals are simply too much for you to handle, Hero Of Time is the perfect place for you to fine tune your ears upon the well oiled musical machine known as Fartbarf.
After getting down and ugly on Warp Whistle, the album comes to a close with Electric Groove. So gung-ho on their mission to get the masses to shake their asses, haters be warned as Fartbarf will make you move even if they have to resort to capital punishment. With the comforting lyrics This ain’t no comfort corner. Just let your body move. I can’t stop jerking to this. You know that funky groove. My last meal satisfied me. I hope you got one too. You know you can’t stop rocking to electric groove… The band shows a warped sense of humor that is so rare to find in music today.
With Dirty Power, Fartbarf has taken a genre of pretty people and bright shiny glimmer and dazzle and dragged it through the muddy sludge that accumulates outside of a portable toilet. It’s an album full of music that lives up to both the name of the band as well as the album. While the name Fartbarf will scare off narrow minded individuals, one can’t deny the plethora of catchy melodies and ass shaking groves found within. Remove the dirty licks and prehistoric masks and you have an album full of radio friendly smash hits that could give Skrillex a run for his money. Perfect in its untamed and wild imperfections, uncontrollable in every aspect while never actually losing control, Fartbarf has delivered the much needed ass kicking a nation of MacBook rocking hacks so desperately needs. A record for those who hate dance music as much as it is one for those who love it, with Dirty Power, Fartbarf proves they are not only fun, they are a true force to be reckoned with.
Reviews published prior to February 23, 2015 used a 1-5 star rating system.
