Fertile Reality – The dune of the mill

This Dutch 5-piece band is influenced by the likes of Joy Division, Interpol, Wire, The Cure, Ride and The Cranes. So they operate somewhere on the borders of wave, indie, shoegaze, and rock, with a somewhat dark edge. This cd, their second demo album, is quite varied.

Fertile Reality does not always chose the easiest road in their compositions. But overall their songs are quite melodic. Dark and rumbling guitar & bass, steady drums, atmospheric synths and a dark melancholic voice are the ‘classic’ ingredients of this band. The voice of Paul Broekhuizen goes back and forth, sometimes I have to think of Ian Curtis, but there are also moments that Bryan Ferry comes to my mind. Not equally convincing on all songs, but in general expressive enough to listen to.

Of the 11 tracks, I quite like ‘1990’, a nice battle between synth & guitar. Most tracks are rather mid-tempo, but on ‘Plan B’ all energy is gathered, making it a dense energetic piece. ‘Duckfeet’ is slower, a good oldschool 80’s postpunk ballad. ‘Morgendammerung’ is rocking quite loud, while ‘Allah Al Akbar’ is a more experimental piece and ‘Hexenreihen’ is a gloomy slow track. ‘Terabyte’ is a peculiar track, which seems to fuse 70’s symphonic rock with 80’s synthpop.

On “The dune of the mill” Fertile Reailty does not invent a new wheel, but the album is varied and entertaining enough to be enjoyed by people who like postpunk/wave/gothic/indie music with a nostalgic feel and a good dose of enthusiasm. There not so many dutch bands in this genre (anymore), some of the exceptions being Doomsday Reflex and Götterdammerung. In april Fertile Reality will be support-act for The Mission, I think that their music is quite suited to be given an energetic treatment on stage.

artist: Fertile Reality
label: New Darkness Recordings
details: 11 tracks [ND41]