Def.fo soothes the holiday hangover.
It’s all a bit much this time of year, isn’t it? Whether it’s the hangover from the pre-Christmas partying/stress, the lingering indulgence or loneliness of the holiday season itself or the desolate, bleak comedown which we’re now enduring (otherwise known as ‘January’).
Come then and let Tom Powell (AKA def.fo) take you away from it all. His debut album Eternity comes dripping in heritage (produced alongside his father Steve, who can list John Power and The Strands amongst his credits) with guest appearances from the legendary Michael Head (Shack, The Pale Fountains) and keys by Chris Geddes from Belle & Sebastian. Throw in Roy Marchant (M.I.A.) on mixing and Howie Weinberg (Gorillaz, Ian Brown, Super Furry Animals) on mastering and you’ve got a mixing pot to delve into.
And delving is a must, for Powell has created a psychedelic trip from sun-kissed, windswept beaches to the inner reaches of the mind. We are dropped in mid-song on opener Free, a swirling whirlpool of a track (think early Tame Impala) which has a sweet chorus but with guitars playing a different song in a different dimension, yet it works.
Then a stylistic volte-face (the first of many) on the bluesy, swaggering Circles, which glistens and sparkles and Richard Hawley-esque strings and guitar. Play It Cool follows, all clanging cymbals and rolling riffs, a successful fusion of garage rock and dream pop.
Powell describes himself as ‘trip-hop’ which, on surface level, seems ambitious but there is a clear undercurrent of the stagnant percussion which defines the genre, most adroitly on Godly (‘volcanic lava flow, hotter than the sun and colder than the snow’) which snaps the listener out of the lethargy the rest of the album’s laid-back vibes conveys. The rapping does veer a little close to parody, but the groove-laden bass synths bring things back.
The wealth of influences across the album are numerous, and welcome. The harmonies on the pastoral Dreamers are pure Beach Boys, while the care-free chorus and twanging guitar of It’s A Wonderful Life recall Inspiral Carpets and other bands from the early 1990s. With banjo and steel drums, the former could sit well within Simon & Garfunkel or Nick Drake’s canon, while the latter is North West meets West Coast.
The mellotron and harp add a sense of wistfulness to the plush Autumn Leaves, while the flute initially present on The Healing Fields may suggest whimsy but the song soon reveals itself to be more malevolent and unhinged.
Closing proceedings, Watching The World blooms then carries itself confidently before things soften into a meditative groove for the last minute or so, the trip coming to an end. Ambitious in scale and sonic, it’s a shame that Eternity’s release might have been buried in the madness of one year becoming the next.
But for those who do discover it, a true experience awaits.