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Review: The Bastards of Fate - Who's a Fuzzy Buddy? [Album]

This Will Be Our Summer Records | "The daring blend of musical styles really does pay off"

by JoeGrave, April 16th, 2012 and has been Read 1056 times.
Last Edited by: Ffion Davies April 16th, 2012.

Since their formation in 2006, The Bastards of Fate have encountered much hardship. Their gigs would end in various mechanical calamities. Their rambunctious capers would get them barred from popular venues. Even The Bastards' rehearsal space burnt down, destroying their equipment. But now in the year 2012, The Bastards of Fate shrug off past sufferings and pose the question.. Who’s a Fuzzy Buddy?



Starting the show is the wonderfully bluesy tinged ‘Digging up Dinosaurs’, with classic slide guitar and fantastic lead harmonica. During the verse it seems quite minimal, but listen closer. Behind Doug Cheatwood’s unique style of vocals are waves, whines, shrieks and howls. This builds up to a gritty chorus with tremendous bass work, fuzz covered vocals and the underlying synth that widens out the low end frequencies. Further into the track, it breaks down into a winding recite of nonsense-like lyrics. As quickly as it appeared, its gone and continues back into the effect doused outro.

Next in line is ‘Oedipus Rex’, a synth heavy, quirky spree of unassailable entertainment, some nice synth solo work and some more of Cheatwood’s nonsensical vocals, ending in a mish mash of crashes and noise. Carrying the quirky torch is the eccentric ‘The Sweet Touch’. The bouncy rhythm and charming vocals keep the song at a steady pace, up until things begin to unravel. What seems like a melodic bass solo accompanied by percussion and the occasional blast of synth, turns into a haunting string piece. Then from almost nowhere rises a scream of drone metal-like noise, who’d of guessed? The song soon returns back to the bouncy rhythm, blended with a more coherent breakdown.



The frankly frightening ‘Harlequin Fetus’ is not for the faint hearted. It is an all-out explosion of mayhem. Shout-y vocals, speed bass, machine gun drums and lots of noise all add together to create something utterly dangerous to the ears. As we stray into the middle of the album, we see that The Bastards have a softer side. Tracks ‘Impossible Feelings’, ‘Huge Magic’ and ‘Spaceheater’ are a consortium of poppy hooks, catchy rhythms and some fantastically memorably lyrics including “My magic’s huger than your boyfriends,” and “Feels like a baker’s dozen in here.” This is all blended with their way out approach to music and their classic psycho-infused instrumentation. While ‘Police 9000’ has these poppy and psychedelic elements, it feels a lot more Indie influenced and sombre. Synth player Camellia Delk does a great job at backing vocals underneath Cheatwoods screams, especially when it all comes crashing down at the end.

LISTEN: 'Huge Magic'

Here we come to the most stand out part of the album, the fun filled ‘Fan Fiction Writer’ has one of the most superb outro’s ever, involving everyone singing “Everybody’s on drugs”, which doesn’t come as much of a surprise. The powerful and anthemic ‘The Zero Hour’ punches through with heroic lead synth on the chorus and a gritty and dark feel to the verse, culminating in what sounds like an 80’s video game character collecting precious coins. ‘Ten Tree Stumps’ is a stone cold groove with some impeccable musicianship on everyone’s part, this one to surely get everyone’s head nodding. The album ends with an extremely creepy (listen to the very end) lullaby entitled ‘Nobody Love’s You’ the perfect offbeat, noise speckled, chaotic closer to this journey of disillusion and curiosities.

The album can seem mixed up, unsure of what it wants to be, and possibly even unpleasant at times. But this is all part of the plan; The Bastards of Fate don’t play it safe and probably don’t care what you think, but the daring blend of musical styles really does pay off. Admittedly, a lot of the tracks are growers but for those who stick with it and listen again and again, will be rewarded some genuinely amazing pieces of imaginative music. While the question ‘Who’s a Fuzzy Buddy?’ still lingers, one thing is for sure. Avant Garde Party Rock is awesome.

Who's a Fuzzy Buddy? is out now