SURVIVAL is the debut album from Forest Fire, four talented individuals who met in New York over the past few years and began making music together in 2008. To record SURVIVAL the band set up a microphone in the centre of the studio and arranged themselves around it. Singer/songwriter Mark Thresher explained: “We wanted to make really simple organic live recordings complete with flaws. It was very important to us to start with something spontaneous. We usually chose to include performances that were wild and unhinged over more polished versions because we wanted that energy. Once we had the recordings we liked we overdubbed and processed them to make them sound as good as possible.”

Survival is a recurring theme throughout the album. Mark explained: “The concept of ’survival’ is something no one around me seems to know anything about. There is a major disconnect between the lives of those living here in America and what’s happening to everyone else around the world. I notice a lot of people, myself included, gliding through their day without ever considering the true meaning of sacrifice.”

The above is intended to put some ‘meat on the bones’ of this extraordinary recording, and to judge whether the band has met its objectives with this record. The answer to the latter is that it has in no uncertain way. In fact it’s one of the most interesting and original releases in this fantastic album release year. To me a truly great album is one that hangs together, with each track compelling one to listen to the next. ‘I Make Windows’ is a simple song with a simple message.  The song rolls along slowly as if on an uneven, undmade road. The vocal wails, the guitar provides a single chord rhythm while another guitar winds its way around the whole. It’s strangely beguiling and moving at the same time.

‘Fortune Teller’ is based on a deathly percussive rhythm while guitar notes wander around an almost talking-pace, clear vocal. And it’s not often that I actually replay a song several times to catch the lyrics… ‘Sunshine City’ is another beguiling song with the briefest lyrical content and a sparse instrumental backdrop. ‘Through My Gloves’ bounds along in single, loping leaps with a violin adding a mournful refrain, and before you realise it the instrumentally-dominated ’Promise’ is on you, pounding away in cataclismic fashion until eventually the only lyric, “I mean it when I say, I mean it when I say, she bit with the teeth of an ungrateful God, you rip me off” arrives and blends seamlessly with the next song. ‘Echoes Coming’ moves along at glacial pace and in somewhat more conventional musical form, with a greater degree of pop sensibility. Its final instrumental throws are extraordinary. ‘Steer Me’ opens with the lyric, ” I don’t like what I’ve become…” and a song that is a tad more conventional but no less compelling. On this album I hear order and disorder, I hear rocky mountain ridges and the occasional trickling stream. I see cloudy  skies with sun beams struggling to break through. I see a parched desert and sparse green shoots fighting their way through dust and sand. This album paints pictures as all great albums should.

I refer you back to the opening paras of this review and ask you to take a risk with this record. It’s raw, honest and very unusual. It’s also beautful and compelling at the same time with door-opening melodies to ease the listening journey. The band describes themselves as ‘a punk band playing folk songs’ but I hear alt country as well.   ’The final track, ‘Slow Motion’, throws everything into the pot and revolves around a relentless, piercing percussive rhythm. It’s massive, and concludes what can only be described as the most surprising, honest and original album of the year. ESSENTIAL.

4.5/5

Editor’s Note: If you’d like to hear three tracks from this album, we’ll be playing them on Sunday 7 June from 10pm on www.calonfm.com during the Shakenstir session.