"What I Am" - Fell Runner (2022)

     The Los Angeles-based quartet Fell Runner released its third full length album "What I Am" around Thanksgiving of 2022. The group's unique fusion of Ghanaian-style rhythmic interplay, syrupy and emphatic themes of self discovery and raw, sorta post-punk edge makes them stand out in a unique way. 

  

  To begin with, this is a quartet of four individual voices sharing in their own ways. Guitarist Steven Van Betten shows the widest spectrum between bristling mania and contemplative fragility. Greg Uhlmann, the second half of the group's formidable guitar frontline, provides a perfect contrast with a more romantic, mellifluous delivery and moody lyricism throughout. These traits transfer to both their guitar styles and singing. Drummer par excellence Tim Carr also provides the album's closest thing to a single here with "Running". Rounding out, although he does not have an original here, is bassist and often anchor in the tunes is Marcus Hogstra. 

  Oh. And all of them sing all the time. And they produced, recorded, mixed, mastered and released the project all by themselves.    

  I feel immersed in extraordinarily vibrant colors taking in their charming sound and aesthetic. Marigold isn't just marigold here. Crimson isn't just crimson. It's MARIGOLD and CRIMSON. Think like an older television set with the saturation knob turned completely up. This is the sound equivalent of that. 

  While the band had displayed undeniable development and maturity in their songwriting between its first two releases - 2015's eponymous album and the brilliant and bold follow-up in 2019's "Talking" - "What I Am", while clearly identifiable as theirs, is a significant departure from several of the traits of those releases.

  The eight songs on this set are more truncated with less common arcs and forms and based on the way the sequence plays out, I feel they are meant to be taken in as one unit or a suite with movements. There is an inquisitive, introspective quality to lyrical themes and it's hard not to feel like one is traveling thru an emotional funhouse of sorts. The word "psychedelic" could be applied but only in a strictly modern sense. Think Gang of Four on acid.

  The vocals are mostly treated in such a way as to give the sense of spirits emanating from unseen corners rather than humans serenading an audience mere feet away. The best example of this eerie facet is the closing lullaby "There Will Come A Day" from Van Betten. It feels like he recorded the song on an answering machine and then threw the machine in the Marianas trench, mic-ing the playback as it sank further and further beneath the surface. 

 

 My absolute favorite moment though is the title track which feels unlike anything else in the band's catalog. It begins with the words "Am I this Body? Am I these thoughts?" sung by Van Betten recast as some sort of brittle gnat-like creature with his voice digitally squeezed a few octaves above its natural state. And if this isn't unsettling enough of an experience, the next part of the song features Van Betten in his normal range harmonizing the first version of himself! The music itself is equally wispy and unsettling, modulating through several tonal centers and anchored by dry, synthy bass line. 

 This is a true journey of a collection, especially considering it starts and ends just shy of 29 spartan minutes with only one of the eight pieces cracking the four minute mark. It's incredible and reassuring to me that a band working in semi-popular circles in a giant, sprawling city such as Los Angeles can manage to be this creative, experimental, tight and still catchy AF. Kudos.