Anytime Now...And High Time Too is the debut album by Fatherfigures, all one word not to be confused with Father Figures or The Father Figures, in this case they are a Leeds based 4 piece that are a continuation of sorts of Flies On You, a band that came to an end after the main songwriter Andy Watkins died far too young in 2018, they have now picked themselves back up and dusted themselves off to become the sort of Gothy post punk agit rock band that's perfect for 2021. If you buy the album through Bandcamp it comes with a free bonus disc of re-mixes.
The album opens with the sounds of jet engines giving way to early Fall style post punk of Marilyn who they claim they are married too. I'm guessing the 80's pop star rather than Monroe, as it's punctuated by skittery cymbal work and metronomic drums with all sorts of other stuff going on around the central tune.
Jesus! Is dub punk that's angry at where we find ourselves and the state of the world as the music is sort of Inca Babies having a fight with Dub Sex.
Think About It is a short sharp blast telling you to open your mind and figure out just how we got here and how to move forward with good deadpan vocals, it's just about hectoring enough to push us out of our complacency.
Bosch has some power tool sounds over lyrics that could be the distillation of an episode of Bosch apart from this isn't cool jazz, more Wire meets the Nightingales slightly obtuse post punk about the art of Hieronymus Bosch, "oh my god she's tossing him off", is the repeating line the song finishes on.
Hissing has a hissing malevolence to it, as well as a darkly gothic vocal this is magisterial goth punk that Sid would approve of.
A Mere Transaction steals a guitar line from Siouxie & The Banshees to strap it onto a dense terse tale of boys being boys when we really wish they didn't behave that way, as they sound a lot like Vee VV as another Mere Transaction goes down.
Landing is all jangling guitars indie pop Gang of Fourish song with a twist or two as we wonder why he's out there on the landing, is he threatening everything, or just paying penance, or awaiting punishment, or to go in and have some fun and then the voices come in from all sides to let you know what's happening on the Landing.
Distressed Behaviour Record is a Nightingales or Fall style talking too, like you're in front of the headmaster, or some jumped up boss, or more likely council employee, who is telling you what's wrong with your behaviour like you've gone off script again, this is a corking tune that I need to hear over and over.
Brush and they are having another brush with Authority and getting all tense and taut and angular as they get Deadly Serious about what's happening to them and us. And that is the next song as they go dub punk again on Deadly Serious with a cool synth part in the middle with all the paranoia in the music as well as the lyrics.
Polythene Embrace is what many of us having been missing, since all the fetish clubs got closed down, this would sound fine at Antichrist as a dub goth floor filler, with a tabloid melodrama unfolding in the lyrics it goes all horror film P.I.L. Metal Box on us, a tune that really needs to be heard on a club system at full volume.
Barbara Stocking On is another story song, about a couple going out on the blag, to a dubby post punk tune that seems to be loosely re-working Cool For Cats musically into something altogether more out there as this song reaches it's climax in more ways than one.
Apotheosis (Of An Eyesore) has mad voices jumping out of the post punk murk, dense layers of guitars making us look at what there is left to die for that you'll have stuck in your head for hours after it finishes playing.
Find Out More at https://fatherfiguresuk.bandcamp.com/album/any-time-now-and-high-time-too https://www.facebook.com/wearefatherfigures
