Fog Rolls In. Homemade Empire

With Fog Rolls In one of the more mysterious albums of the past months has reached me. On the one hand Homemade Empire stands on the shoulders of giants, while on the other it relentlessly and without compromise seems to follow its own path, wherever it may lead the music.

Listen to the first song, 'Stay Awake, Stay Alive', and you will hear Homemade Empire playing a soft, mysterious song, mostly based on electronics and soundscaping. The accents in the song are traditional Dutch symphonic rock like Earth and Fire played just under 50 years ago. They are nothing but a few accents but do put the song on its head, for a very short time.

Hence the loudness of the intro of the second song, 'Concrete Allure', does not come as a total surprise, no matter how different it is compared to 'Stay Awake, Stay Alive'. All the noise drops away, making way for the soft voice of Bart de Kroon. In the singing he brings together Neil Young with an alternative rocking song, where the rocking is mostly stripped out of.

All that you hear on Fog Rolls In is sung and played by Bart de Kroon, who is Homemade Empire, with help from Rats on Rafts drummer Bram Nigten. Where necessary Nigten puts the power of those giants into Homemade Empire as he is an extremely energetic drummer. De Kroon is the sound artist. Just as easily you can hear electronic drones or a church organ on the album. De Kroon sounds as if his music is hiding underwater, but just as easily as if it is shouted from the rooftops. The songs on Fog Rolls In are extreme in nature. De Kroon shows us the different sides of his musicality without any inhibition.

This means that as a listener you have to go with his flow more than on any other album. In that way I'm reminded of  Sparklehorse's first album, 'Vivadixiesubmarinetransmissionplot. Only as a starting reference as Homemade Empire takes quite some twists and turns from there. Mark Linkous intended to shift many an album and I doubt that this was primarily on Bart de Kroon's mind when he conceived Fog Rolls In. The reference is a nice starting point to start listening to the album. Why?, you may ask. Because Bart de Kroon has put a lot of beauty around and under his more adventurous musical streaks. Experimental as parts of the album may be, '3 Swords' holds beauty within it. There's no other word for it. Can you discovered some of the giants' shoulders Homemade Empire is standing on here? Neil Young, Mark Linkous, Damian Rice, just to name a few. Give a close listen and I'm sure you will discover a few others as well.

Until a few weeks ago I had never heard of Homemade Empire, despite this being the project's fourth album. I'm glad that has changed. There is a lot to enjoy on Fog Rolls In. I'm fascinated, not unlike those unique moments that fog does roll in fast.

Wout de Natris

You can listen to and order Fog Rolls In here:

https://homemadeempire.bandcamp.com/

or listen to our Spotify Playlist to find out what we are writing about:

https://open.spotify.com/user/glazu53/playlist/6R9FgPd2btrMuMaIrYeCh6?si=KI6LzLaAS5K-wsez5oSO2g