Reviewed by Ian Phillips.
By Fascinating, Dirty Water Records 2018.
Cleveland based gutter pop rockers, Fascinating, are part of the new school of performers who have abandoned current, mainstream, pop and reverted to a stripped down and more authentic form of performance.
Communist Power is their most fully realised and complete collection of songs to date and it was recorded straight to tape with the renowned Cleveland based engineer, Paul Maccarrone, in a two-day session in 2017.
The band consists of the core trio of singer/songwriter/guitarist Ricky Hamilton, drummer Marty Brass, and bassist Carter Luckfield and for the first time they’ve been joined by lead guitarist Adam Spektor.
These 12 songs are a challenge to the craziness and corruption that exists in America today as well as the falseness and confection of modern music.
Communist Power is not so much a call for revolution but more a middle-finger salute to the people who grow wealthy at the expense of the disenfranchised and down-trodden.
Many of the songs are extremely short, some are half finished, but they’ve been included just the same.
A song like Empire Of Lydia is barely more than a 1.30 minute in length. Very few would be more than two minutes.
Count-ins and false starts are still there. It’s like being in the studio with the band. On some tracks they can be heard still discussing how the song goes.
I love the title track, it’s a full-on thrash belter, and the musical theme is carried through to the following track which has the great title, Continue To A Maze.
This album won’t be everyone’s cup of tea.
It’s raw and gritty and the complete antithesis to virtually everything that you’ll hear on the radio.
It’s deliberately unpolished and messy and the boys, and their fan base, like it that way.
