Fly

Gary Ainge: drums
Marco Thomas: bass and keyboards
Martin Davies: keyboards

The first thing to remember about FLY is that the current trend towards short CDs just doesn’t apply to this band. They have been waiting a decade to give us their debut and they want to leave us with as much music as the present format provides (allows?). It is not a case of dumping us with every quaver and crochet they’ve come up with, rather they’ve duplicity weaved in and out of a decade, discarding, even disposing, and all this time we now see dispensing with what has been on offer throughout these past few current trends.
 

FLY have honed a sound like no other. Neither the past nor the future, it is a sound for today. Instrumental music for the modern consummate traveller and the stable desk bound traveller. Music without words to blemish the soundscape. A huge bass driven leg shaking affair. As much for the precise beautiful melodies as for the perfect punching beat. Driving would be the right word for this sound - like a trip taken around the new modern Europe in a flash brand new silver Mercedes equipped with the latest disc and CD excellence. You can’t fault the precise streamlined effect as the 12 pieces of music permeate through your soul.
 

If we were told FLY were from Germany, say from Hamburg, you’d wink knowingly as if you’d caught on hours before. Or various other continental cities. But they’re not. They’re all from the Black Country. One of England’s bleakest darkest industrial wastelands. And two of them were in that mysterious of all 80s underground bands, FELT. Now things are becoming clearer. And the sleeve details tell us that Duffy from FELT and now PRIMAL SCREAM co-wrote and played on 3 of the tracks. The facts are becoming clearer like on a foggy morning in the bank lined streets of Dusseldorf.
 

There’s no game being played here though, FLY are a serious affair and would never contrive an image for themselves. They’ve left that up to their old partner, for it is Lawrence – FELT/DENIM/GO-KART MOZART who has worked on the imagery of for the CD, coming up with the title and naming the tracks.
 

Musically, where FLY are soaring high, he has no input whatsoever – and soaring, powerful music is their domain. If only the British instrumental bands were feted as much as their German and French counterparts, FLY and this magnificent army of tunes would upset the balance of power. So shift up a gear or sit back and PUT THE NEEDLE DOWN AND FLY.
 

Text written by Lawrence (FELT/DENIM/GO-KART MOZART)
 

Elefant discography:
ER-1084 “Put the needle down and fly” CD 2002

FLY discography in other labels:
Motorway 4 track EP, 1998, 4M Records.