Break! Fazerdaze

Fazerdaze, the nom de plume of Amelia Murray, returns after five years of silence. Morningside was welcomed on this blog quite warmly, so I was happy to read there was new work underway. A five song EP is not a huge score after five years, suggesting that new songs did not come easy for Murray.

These things are private and in my opinion not for a blogpost writer to deeply reflect on. As she wrote herself that after her tour of 2017 and 2018 she came home drained, unhinged and feeling "as if my wheels were coming off", it becomes obvious to lay the link to the title song of Break!.

'Break!' is a very direct alternative rock song. In the style of Wet Leg, I might add and more likely what the Isle of Wight band might sound like two years from now when the touring after its debut album is over. "Something's gotta give, something's got to change ... I'm just gonna break". It seems like this reflects Amelia's inner feelings since 2018. 'Break!' is the right kind of opening song for the EP. One that immediately gets my attention.

From there on Break! takes a turn to a more electronic, stylised album. Fazerdaze still presents us alternative rock songs but I am thinking of Depeche Mode for some reason, but also, again, of Amber Arcades. Five years later that association is still there, so Annelotte de Graaf and Amelia Murray must be kindred sprits of some kind.

The strange thing is that I have this electronic connotation while I am hearing regular instruments all over the place. Perhaps the percussion, in part is not, but all others are guitars in different shades of distortion. The reason for it, is the staccato form in which the music is played. Almost inhumanly tight. So a studio tool could be in place here.

Listening to all five songs, the conclusion is that what doesn't break you makes you stronger. Wheels can be replaced and it seems to me this overhaul worked out quite well for Fazerdaze. Break! is a tight EP full of confidence in herself and the future. The final words are "feel it, feel it" and I think Amelia Murray does just that, feel her music and throwing it out into the world as far as she can. Greeting from The Netherlands in return.

Wout de Natris

 

You can listen to and order Break! here:

https://fazerdaze.bandcamp.com/album/break