Record Review // Fog Lamp "Still Entangled" (Stillbreeze Records)

https://siltbreeze.bandcamp.com/album/fog-lamp-still-entangled-lp 

From start to finish, "Still Entangled" is the type of album that has a way of getting stuck inside your head.   Fog Lamp has this sound which can cross between rock and punk, which brings up a lot of subgenres as well.  I think about things such as post punk, but also want to think of this as future punk because if you were someone listening to Oingo Boingo at that time, you might think about how it is like looking into the future of music and I feel like that with Fog Lamp.

There are elements of Devo and Doctor Who in here.  At times the way the singing becomes closer to speaking makes me think of an artist such as Future Of The Left or even Suicidal Tendencies.  Something about the way the synths sound in here make it feel like we're listening to something in either the 1980's or 1990's that people will still be talking about and referencing in the 2020's.  So I guess in that sense forty years from now or whatever, people will still be talking about how Fog Lamp was ahead of their time with this album.

One of the songs which seems to hit me the hardest is "Library Cop" because even though I understand why he exists it just seems funny that the library doesn't really have anything for sale, so it's not like he's guarding a shop.  And I get it, people will steal anything, but the thought of someone stealing something they could have for free is kind of strange, right?

When I was a kid, I used to go to the local library a lot with my dad.  My dad loved to talk to the library people about books.   One time I remember very specifically that my younger sister and I were there, bored because my dad was talking.  They had a payphone near the desk where we were waiting and on the ground was a grate where people dropped their spare change.  So my sister and I saw this and we were using our little fingers to try and pry coins out of this very poorly designed part of the library (or maybe whoever designed it knew what they were doing)

In any event, I remember the library cop, as it were, coming up to my sister and I, asking us what we were doing.  We were kids, probably 10 years old at most, and so he couldn't really get us into trouble because we weren't of legal age.  Plus I don't know what the rules were about that money being in there- did it become library property or was it up for grabs.  But the library cop might have also just been wondering if we dropped something in there and needed help getting it out.  Who knows exactly, but I still remember that day and this song will make me remember that story forever as well.  

Even if you can't relate to these songs with a personal tale, their psych / trance / near goth way about them might still appeal to your ears.  "Wash The Machine" has this big, space break down to it that I also really enjoy and can show the musical side to this album, while you are also getting caught up in both the vocals and lyrics.   If there isn't such a thing as nostalgic future space punk, Fog Lamp might just be leading the way with it here.