Amazon.co.uk Review
Luck Be A Weirdo Tonight from profuse Hull-based duo
Fila Brazillia sees them take a slightly more downtempo approach. Known for their quirky songwriting and colourful arrangements, this long player retains their trademark touches but once again stretches them in another direction. Starting with the live-feeling hip hop beat and simplistic wide-screen feel of the charmingly titled "Lieut Gingivitis Shit", the album careers off into the ever-enchanting and deeply idiosyncratic sonic world that Fila happily inhabit. As always there's a heavily percussive feel to these tracks that makes you want to shuffle and bop your head, but it's the emotive and imaginative wrappings of melody and texture that really make their work stand out. Featuring sudden guitar thrash outs ("Billy Goat Groupies"), uptempo randomness ("Hells Rarebit"), quaint acoustic chugs (the superbly titled "Rustic Bellyflop") and some sterner beats on the subtly bizarre "Van Allens Belt", this is another coruscating addition to the Fila oeuvre.--
Paul Sullivan
Description
Can Fila Brazillia cook or can't it? Forget everything you've ever heard about downtempo. Ignore the pundits who derideBritish trip-hop, citing their utter confusion over the term and its practitioners. Distance yourself from those who pillory the fact that much of the Ninja Tune/NineBar/Pork contingent is responsible for the most flaccid of tunes and the most gutless of grooves. Fila Brazillia perhaps epitomises all that is right in the giant melting pot we call "electronica".
Yeah, there's jazz--there's lots of jazz ("Weasel Out the Muck"). There's silly dub antics ("Rustic Bellyflop"), there's bass-fuzz hip-hop ("Do the Hale-Bopp"), and, of course, there's outright electro-weirdness ("Hells Rarebit"). There is, in fact, a little something for anyone with catholic-enough tastes. One basically has to let the bizarreness and instrumental prowess of the Fila Brazillians just flow over the head like aural molasses. It's a glorious noise.