by Matt Watton (@brotinus)
Montreal’s Feeling Figures make a kind of catchy, arty, punky garage rock that just sticks in your ear. Their latest record, Migration Magic, makes good on the promises of their tantalizing three song debut with ten new, self-recorded songs of skronky guitars and off-kilter vocal harmonies. Each track has an outline of simple pop colored in with ever-more interesting harmonies and subtle melodies.
The core of the band is lead songwriters, vocalists, and guitarists Zakary Slax and Kay Moon. The Slax-Moon connection is at the heart of this record. Their guitar lines intertwine and play off each other, eschewing the simple lead-rhythm dynamic for a more interesting interplay. Tunes like “Remains” and “Across the Line” (which opens with the most tantalizing chord I’ve heard all year) are built on a understated weaving of chimey one-string guitar lines and fuzzy strumming, while the song “Don’t Ever Let Me Know” ends with a wicked lo-fi guitarmony that would give Thin Lizzy a run for their money. Vocally, the record is carried by Slax-Moon vocal harmonies that flirt equally with dissonance and euphony. Alone, each voice is interesting and fit for purpose – Slax’s punky intonation on “Movement,” Moon’s bittersweet lilting on “Seek and Hide,” but the doubled vocals throughout the record are more than the sum of their parts and stamp each song with an enigmatic beauty. Credit due, too, to the valiant rhythm section (Thomas Molander and Joe Chamandy) who know how to put the pedal to the floor (“Sink”) or tastefully reign it in as the song calls for (“I Should Tell You”).
The band’s whirlwind two night lo-fi recording is the perfect production for their songs, since the clipping vocals and scraggly guitars add the right level of grit to temper their pop sensibilities. These tunes’ unshakeable foundation in melody reminds one of music from Down Under, such as classics from Flying Nun’s heyday or more recent garage rockers like UV Race. It also calls to mind the way bands like Beat Happening or early GBV married 60s garage and Lennon-McCartney harmonies with an unrelenting lo-fi punkiness.
Feeling Figures oozes a sense of effortless cool – cool chords, cool vocals, cool lyrics. Who else could turn a Quebecois folk song into a certified ripper (“Pour Un Instant”)? Not quite twee and not quite post-punk, Migration Magic is some secret third thing (garage art pop?) that’s a non-stop delight.