--Ada Wofford
----Released 8 January 2021
Famish's debut EP is six tracks of beautiful, lo-fi bedroom pop. Yes, there are echoes of early Death Cab, Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin, and even Coma Cinema (later to be known as Elvis Depressedly) but comparisons fall short of the unique charm of this little album.
Opening track "beck" sets the tone with its cool-clean guitars and dreamy, lo-fi pop sensibilities. The rest of the album doesn't depart much from this but why would you want it to when Famish execute it so well? The track, "nana" mixes it up a bit with crunchy sounding drums and "miral" has an infectious, watery guitar riff—But throughout the EP, Famish stick to their sound and never deviate unless they feel it's absolutely necessary.
The band had this to say about their process:
So, the whole album was recorded in two days at Clark Audio, in Denton, TX. None of the equipment that we used was substantial really. We wanted to keep things as relaxing and plain as possible, so most of the equipment used to record ended up being items that were just kind of laying around Nathan's home studio.
To keep with the theme of things being simple, I went into the studio with the song ideas and purposely did not let Carter or Nathan hear them before the recording process started. I recorded the main acoustic and vocal tracks in a couple of hours and left the rest of the time for the other two to write and record their synth, guitar, and percussion tracks. A lot of the layers ended up being one-take tracks of ideas that were thought up just a few seconds earlier. My intent was to keep things as simple as possible and not let anyone overthink what they wanted to add to the songs. I hope that this further adds to the 'bedroom' feel of the record, but that's something for the listener to decide.
While Famish certainly accomplish a "bedroom" feel for this record, the arrangements and performances do not at all sound rushed or even improvised. Yes, there's a looseness to this record but everything sounds absolutely purposeful. Part of this is due to Famish knowing that no song, or part, should overstay its welcome; the longest song on this record is only 2:38. By keeping things short and sweet, Famish have created a miniature masterpiece. Purchase on BandCamp and check out the single, "beck" below:
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