Originally released back in 2012 on CD format only, ‘Floe’s Nest’, the debut album by the alternative-electronic collective Floe-Joe’s Faces is now remastered and available to stream for the first time after one of their founders, Ben Fairey was given full ownership of their archive.
Formed with Fairey back in 2011, electronic production-duo ‘L-I-O-N’ recreated music they made for circus and cabaret shows, transforming it into a unique style of trip-hop grooves that still dipped toes into psychedelic, pop-rock territory. The lead single ‘All Over’ (which has incidentally received Lyric Video treatment for the rerelease) has aged well with the two follow-up singles: ‘Poiein’ and ‘2teotuab’ as equally distinguishable from other music of the time.
Floe’s Nest took listeners through a labyrinth of sound, guided by Fairey’s drawling-yet-still-soulful vocal delivery. At times, the cohesion you expect to hear in contemporary music is sometimes lost but the track listing almost makes up for this. After the three singles kickstart the runtime, the pace starts to dip on the stabbing synths of ‘Omniphonia’ followed by the unwelcoming ‘Unfollow’ interlude. The album begins to redeem itself with a trippy dose of 808 drums on ‘Cloud’ before regaining consciousness for the stern drum and bass of ‘Resolving’ and the Jefferson Airplane/Neptunes hybrid beat of ‘A Seat At The Table.’
As a limited release on a single, non-digital format, the album remained an underground gem. (Maybe the label had reservations about the streaming explosion at the turn of the last decade.) However, this hidden gem is emerging from obscurity. Which is lucky. It’s definitely worth a listen.
A remastered, digital rerelease of Floe’s Nest will be available from Feb 6th including a brand-new 4K Lyric Video for the single, 'All Over', available from Feb 4th.
