Part of my 50 greatest albums of all time.
Hands up who guessed that I would have a late 90’s psychedelic, Baggy album on this list? No one? No? No! Come back! It’s great, I swear!
I discovered Regular Fries on a NME cover CD. ( I’m pretty sure the CD had Moaner by Underworld on it as well) I’d never heard of them before, but the track, Dream Lottery, is a lovely bit of bass driven space / post rock that is so good even the saxophone featured on it couldn’t spoil it for me. (Saxophones are terrible and should only be used under duress.)
They’re not a band I know a lot about, I bought the CD and fell in love with it pretty quickly, but never did a deep dive on the band. Fries released a second album a year later that featured Cool Keith, (It was ok) but it’s pretty telling that I only discovered the band’s third album existed when doing a little research for this write up.
During that bit of reading, I discovered that the band were lumped in with something called the Skunk Rock movement. Sometimes I really don’t miss the British music press.
I’ve described this as psych baggy and that’s probably, no, it is mean, but it’s not wrong. Accept the Signal is a weird grab bag of styles, hip hop beats, various brass instruments, guitar jams, dub bass and some female vocal acrobatics. There’s a lot going on here, but this is a vibes album first and foremost. Spark up, take whatever you’re taking, and jump on. With this album you’re going for a ride.
Dust it, the album opener has its dub bass front and centre before the synths and guitars come in an add texture. The band made one thing very clear from the start, this album is about the bass, it’s going to lock everything in as the rest of the band go cosmic.
It’s also a very silly album. The lyrics feel like they’re an afterthought in a lot of places and while it has no negative effect on the album, I can see how a song that repeats the line “Better be a monkey if you like King Kong” could be off putting.
In the middle of this madness is a cover of The Pink Room from the Fire Walk With Me soundtrack, its low slung, filthy bass carrying the song as it falls into chaos. It shouldn’t work, but it’s brilliant.
There’s a Mercury Rev remix where they slow the original song down to a crawl and add something that sounds very like whale song. There’s no reason to do something like this but Fries don’t care. Everything is getting thrown at the wall here and no one cares what’s sticking, they’ve moved on to the next idea. Keep up.
The last track is a completely euphoric psychedelic, bongo laden wig out which also features a woman performing a vocal solo that gives the Great Gig in the Sky a run for its money. It’s all hammond organ and spaced out.. everything. For me is joy in musical form, something to get lost in, to just go with the band and air drum if you have to, let the cosmic synths and that vocal solo take you where they will, and just grin. It’s madness in the best way.
It’s a pity the band couldn’t come close to this again. It’s a shame that it’s completely forgotten, but as a late 90’s curio, it’s hard to top.
Accept the Signal is one of two albums on this list that’s not on streaming so I’ve added some Youtube links.
The ways of exile 