Fotocrime
Always Night

It is always night when Fotocrime makes their debut, their first 12” one might say as it isn’t a very long six-track release they are offering their listeners. The main man behind the band is R. Pattern, also known as Ryan Patterson formerly of the band Coliseum. He has some skilled musicians to help him with this release that has to be described as a post punk release with dancey drum machines, synths and some groovy catchiness. Clearly an album that sounds better than it looks, the cover art is not really that interesting – though not really bad either.

The album is on the night side of things, a pretty short story with short playing time and decent variation even though the first and fourth track sounds pretty much alike. The vocals are good and so is the production, there is clearly a lot to like about this effort by Fotocrime. Creatively it is a rather interesting effort, though not all the way through as I think the ending tectonic track could have been a lot better – it is actually a quite uninteresting end to a good, if not great album otherwise.

I think the track Always Hell is the best one and it is closely followed by the opening track Duplicate Days, these two tracks are great and quite similar as well – almost like shaped from the exact same mould. The other three tracks besides the rather unfetching ending can be said to be good, and in the end I think we have a rather enjoyable album on our hands here. I have certainly liked playing through this one several times over; I especially like the tracks I have mentioned as my favourites of the album.

Always Night is a strong album, it is certainly worth looking closer at – especially if you enjoy the post punkish style of music. I enjoy the melodies and the dark atmospheres and all of that – the end takes away some of the enjoyment though and that is my main niggle with this album. But I still think that very few (if any) that get this album will dislike it, it is too good for that. Fotocrime is a band that promises a lot, and keeps most of their promises and I believe it will be an interesting band to follow and their debut 12” is definitely worth checking out.

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