Edinburgh’s North Atlantic Oscillation have kicked up one hell of a metaphorical storm on ‘Fog Electric’, their second album. From its haunting synth foundations, to myriad samples and lyrics of being lost and found, this is an album whose leitmotif even stretches to its cover artwork.
There are hints of Mogwai and Hot Chip here, but in terms of pace and mood, its Engineers that draw the closest comparisons, along with more recent Scottish bands of the same ilk such as Found and Errors.
To simply label ‘Fog Electric’ as post-rock would be doing it something of a disservice though. All 10 tracks are more experimental than that, with the band building in layers throughout, thanks to samples, electronics, keyboards, hazy rhythm guitars, rocky riffs and Sam Healy’s effect-heavy vocals. All this is pulled together by Tony Doogan’s slick production – it will come as no surprise that he can count Mogwai and Mojave 3 on his CV.
Make no mistake, despite the use of electronic equipment and vocal effects, at ‘Fog Electric’’s heart, it is a folk album. Its tracks tell tales with a narrative heart and lyrically it’s as strong as the squall it sets out to represent. And that’s the major downfall of the album – it forgets that sometimes simple can be more effective. It’s when the melody carries the track that the album truly excels, such as on ‘Expert With Altimeter’, a keyboard-driven heart-breaker that breaks into uplifting guitars as Healy sings “How long have we been suspended here? Where road is filament, and no longer makes sense”.
The track is the album’s standout (along with the instrumental closer, ‘Theory of Tides’), and a marker for what North Atlantic Oscillation are capable of. At its height, ‘Fog Electric’ makes you sit up and pay attention, a bit like storms themselves can.
Released April 30 2012 on Kscope
Posted by Kevin Scott
