Album Review - Lo Fi Fnk


Last year when BlackPlastic visited the glorious land of ice that is The Republic of Iceland (not the shop, obviously) it picked up a sampler CD for that year's Airwaves festival despite that fact that the festival had been and gone without BlackPlastic's attendance. And thank God for that CD, for if it wasn't for that the Lo Fi Fnk album might have completely bypassed this site.

The Airwaves CD featured the fantastic slab of stop / start electronics of 'Change Channels', listening to which felt somewhat like sinking into a sponge of the sweetest sounding electronic funk imaginable. A song that makes the listener think, "they can't keep this up, surely?"

Well guess what? They've only done a whole album... 'City' sounds like the most exciting drive home ever as breakbeats are married to the acid washes and indie vocals and 'Adore' is just as happy. 'System' is a lo-fi robot make-out, darker in tone but still a pure pop moment.

When 'What's On Your Mind?' taunts the listener... "Why don't tell what's on your mind? Nothing's going to change if you keep on whispering... Why don't tell what's on your mind? It's no reason to be all that boring!" it feels like this is an album by a bunch of permanently cheerful ADD sufferers, but it's sooo infectious that you can't help but love Lo Fi Fnk for it.

Lo Fi Fnk is shiney happy music. It is Prince vs Daft Punk. It is broken beat vs funky house. It is fntstc.