AP Track Review
The singer-songwriter, artist, producer who calls himself Phileas Fogg is a bit of a mystery. As you may know his moniker is that of the hero of Jules Verne's 1873 novel Around the World in Eighty Days and listening to Foggs musical creations I can understand why he may of been attracted to the name and even the Fogg character. His latest musical offering, Will Never Be Played Again is whimsical and pushes art rock buttons. Fogg's vocal performance is wide eyed and provocative like he is on a timeless cabaret stage with the footlights shining up at him. I love some of the ambient experimentalism here and that tambourine above the drums is exquisite.
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Robb Donker
THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM - PRESS NOTES:
The background story is a familiar one: artist’s band gets signed to a major label; things quickly start going downhill; artist becomes disillusioned and finds a nine-to-five job. But the music doesn’t go away. Spending every moment of his free time first building his own music space in a spare bedroom, then amassing a collection of vintage music instruments and effects, Phileas Fogg began to craft his timeless melodies until they finally began to burst out of his world.
Rejecting the notion of artists as imprisoned in social media glass jars, Phileas Fogg steps out of the chorus line of the disaffected with a vocabulary shared with Jacques Brel and John Howard to offer a window’s access to music as an authentically human experience.
Will Never Be Played Again is the first tune to escape, and is the story of what Phileas Fogg calls his Magic Moment, the moment that re-affirmed his commitment to songwriting after hearing true beauty in a track penned by a friend of a friend, that fleeting but indelible moment of realization that the Essence can truly be captured in notes and lyrics. Sonically, the song summons the intriguing notion of Radiohead’s The Bends as produced by Scott Walker in 1968, with its intense melody and big-hearted vocals.
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