The Sun

limited to 400 copies on coloured vinyl. fridge features kieran hebden who has had great success with his solo project four tet and adem who has released the albums 'homesongs' and 'love and other planets' on domino records to much critical acclaim and success. this is the first fridge album since their groundbreaking masterpiece 'happiness' in 2001. it is the fifth fridge album. fridge were part of the influential post rock movement of the 90s alongside bands like mogwai and tortoise. this new album sees them continue to make boundary pushing music that brings together elements of rock, electronic music and jazz. post-rock is a tired term now, but on 'the sun', as always, fridge summon up the energy, openness and ambition of it's earliest moments. there are no bass solos, but bowed cymbal, bells, and whistles wash through the mix in a complete recoding of rock dna. and don't look for po-faced counting of bars and beats. listen to sam jeffers battering drum pattern which erupts from the records first seconds. there's an exuberance you'd expect from a garage band sensibility. but 'the sun' has a coherent sound - which is amazing given the number of musical bases bounced off over its 11 tracks. 'clocks' could be radiohead as interpreted by slint. 'eyelids' is as agile and punchy as anything by battles. but they make total sense sat next to blissful lullabies like 'our place in this' or 'year and years and years and years' and even an explosive sketch like drums of life. fridge even make 'comets' make sense, with its low pulse of drum machine that could fit a miami bass record and bright lines of detroit synth. double bass and glockenspiel help weave it into the acoustic tangles which follow on 'insects'. but really it's fridge's harmonies that hold 'the sun' together, joining up the dots between their disparate interests and influences.